Tales of Rescuing
by GRINtelligencer
Summary: Yusuke is dropped into a dream world on a mission to save his teammates before a mind hacking demon gets his hands on them. There’s just a small snag. Now that he’s there, he doesn’t remember what he’s supposed to be doing… and time’s running short.
1. Wherein A Guide Appears

**Tales of Rescuing**

Dane Soar

This new fic is an incredibly dumb thing to put up when I already have two ongoing fics already…and yet I'm still doing it. Sounds a little masochistic, eh?

Anyway this is a little unusual, but a story I like anyway. There was no prologue at first, but the first chapter became too long so that's changed.

Oh and watch out for the cussing, this is Yusuke for a main character, after all. And please leave a review so I know how this story turned out.

Anyway, on to the story at long last, the curtain rises and here we start in the middle of a conversation.

**---------------------------**

Prologue **Wherein A Guide Appears And Yusuke Asks Questions (Which Are Ignored For The Most Part And Avoided The Rest Of The Time)**

**---------------------------**

_(Tale Begins)_

"Well, that sounds awfully convenient. What's in it for you?" Yusuke glowered at the women.

She flapped a wing irritably. "Do not be so suspicious, human."

"Suspicious? You told me you were an angel! Goddamnit, if that's not suspicious, I don't know what is!"

The women was levitating, but Yusuke was sure a demon could do that too, and as for the glowing blond hair, demons could have that too. He wasn't about to believe this woman, no matter what she said.

"Please, Spirit Detective," she spread her hands. "you do not have much time. As you stand here, your friends slip further and further away from this world."

Glancing over at the limp forms Yusuke knuckled the side of his head. "Jeeze, that mind hacking demon really got to those guys. And, let me get this straight, I can save them if I do this?"

"Yes," agreed the could-be-angel. "this is the only way or your allies will be lost."

"And tell me what's in it for you, again?"

She sighed, fluttered her wings and floated closer to the ground. "I am indebted to

Lord Koenma and this will pay my debt off."

"That would do it. Okay, before I agree to anything, who the hell are you and why am I not wherever my team's minds got blasted to?"

"I am Aleara, an angel of dimensions."

"Oh yeah, pull the other one, it's got fuckin' bells on it."

"Please, Spirit Detective, you of all people know there is not much time for your team. And I was able to shield you from the mind blast before it hit you," she looked glowingly bashful. "I did not arrive in time to do anything else."

"Okay, that's enough for now, if your from Koenma, I guess it's okay. Just as long as you know what your doing." he glanced over again at his teammates…bodies. "and make sure we end up in Genkai's temple, no matter how this ends."

"Are you ready?"

"Yep."

"Then let me give you one last warning, when I send you there, your memory might be a bit damaged when you arrive."

"Then how the hell will I know what to do?"

Aleara shook her head. "There will be a guide for you. We are running out of time."

"Then get on with it."

With a flap of wings she floated forward and placed her hands on either side of his head. "Spirit Detective, I wish you all the luck you may have."

But the mind of Yusuke Urameshi was blasted into a far away place already.

**--------------------------------------------**

_Poke, poke._

There was something jabbing into his ribs. Yusuke ignored it. Laying around seemed like a really nice option.

_Poke, poke._

Yeah, this was the life. No reason at all to open his-

_Poke, poke._

"Shit." Yusuke opened his eyes and they met the sunlight head on. "…arg…Jeeze."

_Poke, poke._

He whipped his hand out and someone yelped. Many people would be surprised at the speed that Yusuke rolled over and leaped at the unknown person.

With a bit of mystification, he found himself laying on the ground. It was covered in leaves and sticks and he was laying on a sharp root. He froze waiting for his brain to catch up.

"Umm, sir…" said a voice from not far away. "you're kind of laying_ in_ me, and that's all sorts of creepy uncomfortable."

Backing off Yusuke stared at the place the voice had come from. A small fellow sat there, staring back, with a stick in one hand. Well that was one mystery solved.

He wrenched the stick from the guy's hand and snapped it in two. "Who the hell are _you_?"

The man was short, he could tell that even with him laying down, dressed in an all-enveloping cloak of a dark color. His hair was long, but tied back in a tight braid, and his eyes tended toward green, but sometimes appeared to scurry toward blue, set in a round young face. And as if to top off the appearance, his ears rose up in furry points out of his glossy black hair.

He was also practically see through. It wasn't obvious, but from the way the light filtered through the trees and passed right though him, Yusuke could tell.

The man pointed at himself. "I am Kear. Key…ear…very simple you see, sir, and I'll be your guide." He sounded it out slowly, as if to make sure Yusuke knew exactly how to say his name.

"Hey," Yusuke said, in the tone of a person who is still waiting for the catch up of the brain. "how come you could pick up that stick, but I went right through you?"

Kear shrugged. "I dunno, it's one of those plot hole things. I can only assume that it's that I wanted to pick up the stick, but didn't want you to tackle me. Oh and nice reflexes by the way, sir."

"Err, thanks?" then something clicked. He looked around. It was a forest, somewhere he didn't recognize in the Human World but definitely not the Makai either. If it had been, there would have been carnivorous trees. "Why am I here? And how did I get here?"

"I guess that she was right about the memory loss, it's temporary I hope, sir."

He drew his legs in until he sat cross-legged and glared at the self-proclaimed guide. "What memory loss?"

Kear hit his head with the heel of his hand. "Oh dear…how do I explain this? Umm… well, you, err, are on a mission, sir."

"Did Koenma send me?" asked Yusuke.

"Why ah… yes, yes, he did… sort of," Kear grabbed on to the convenient idea with the air of a drowning man grabbing onto a piece of wood. "you're here to, um, well, you're here to find some… people and, err… free them, sir."

"Just me?"

"What, sir?"

"I mean, Koenma sent me alone, without the guys? I mean, what's the point of being on a team of Spirit Detectives if you're sent out alone?"

"…ah, yes sir, alone, as it were." he looked nervous, and that made Yusuke on alert. The little guy wasn't telling him everything.

"And there people I'm supposed to help are…?" looking at Kear he waited for him to fill in the blank.

The guide looked uncomfortable, and then seemed to give up. "Look, sir, if you forgot about it, that means your brain couldn't handle it. There's a good chance that if I tell you, it could make you really lose it. And we don't want that, sir, oh no."

Yusuke gave him a skeptical look. "That's probably the worst excuse I've even heard, did you know that?"

Kear raised both his hands, in a 'oh well, I tried' gesture then fished in the recesses of his cloak with one hand, which came back out with a small pocket-watch. He surveyed it with a frown. "Oh, dear, oh, dear."

"What do you mean by that?" Yusuke said. "Am I on a time limit too? Anything else you haven't told me while you're at it?"

Kear replaced the watch somewhere under his cloak. "Not a time limit, as such, sir. But you might want to hurry about it."

"About what?" this much information, give in somewhat vague spoonfuls, was not fitting in well in Yusuke's brain. Or whatever was there at the moment.

He rapped the heel of his hand on his head again. "About rescuing those people, remember, sir, we discussed this before we got diverted. You're here to save your fr… um some people. We're in something of a hurry, sir."

"Okay, let me guess, the longer we sit around here the worse it gets, so we'd better get going." He got to his feet, brushing off his knees were some leaves had clung. "I'm more of a city boy, these forests give me the creeps." He eyed the nearby trees and headed in a direction completely at random, on a hunch.

From behind him he heard a curse, and the sound of someone scrambling to their feet. "Wait, sir, wait! Are you sure is that all you need to know, you aren't even going to ask anymore questions?" a thud and something fell to the ground. "Oh bugger, there it goes again. Hey, sir… sir! Come back, I've got give you your sword!"

Yusuke stopped, turning slowly. "Sword? What do you mean by sword?" Kear picked up a wrapped up bundle and offered to him.

"Every hero needs a sword, sir. And a guide too, who usually to gives it him."

"And if I tell you I don't need some a sword?" his fingers glowed a little blue.

The guide's face fell and his eyes shifted from blue to green. "You're going to be difficult aren't you, sir?"

"You bet your ass. It's what I do," Yusuke gave him a cocky grin and a wink for good measure. "now which way is it toward those people I'm supposed to save?"

With a sigh Kear pointed. "To the west, sir. We'll find a path in a few minutes."

"Good," said Yusuke marching off the direction that Kear had indicated as west without a backward glance. "don't fall behind."

"Sir, wait!" but Yusuke didn't turn. With a sigh the guide wrapped the sword-bundle a little tighter, belted it over his back so one end (the hilt end) stuck out over his shoulder, and picked up his lantern from the forest floor. This was a small thing, which held no flame whatsoever. Then he scurried after Yusuke.

Someone with a sharp ear and a gift for lip-reading might have heard in a mutter. "Ah, bugger, bugger, _bugger_… he's difficult, Aleara never told me about that… darn angels and Spirit Detectives!"

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**TBC **

**On to the first chapter…**


	2. Wherein There Is A Ball

**Tales of Rescuing **

Dane Soar

I forgot to fix the chapter bar before but this time I made sure I changed the last one and this one. The real chapter names are too long to fit, but there here below.

Sorry if the prologue was confusing, just sort of roll with it in the meantime. If something comes up that you just can't get (that means I probably goofed up) mention it, please, so I can set it right.

Thanks for reading and now the show continues.

Chapter 1** Wherein There Is A Ball and Yusuke Asks A Lot More Questions (Which Aren't Really Answered Here Either)**

**--------------------------------------------**

_(Cinderella)_

"Um, sir?"

"What Kear?"

"Are you sure you don't want the sword, sir?"

"Yeah."

"Positive?"

"Yes, positive."

"Really, really positive, sir?"

Yusuke winced. This conversation, or variations of it, had been going on half the day. "Do you have to call me 'sir'?"

His guide nodded. "Oh yes, sir, it's practically traditional, don't worry sir, you'll get used to it I imagine."

"Whatever," replied Yusuke. They were trotting at a high pace down the path, the guide scurrying quickly after him on shorter legs to try to keep up. "how far is it to these people I'm going to help?" The path was fairly well worn and wound through the trees without any sign of coming out of the forest.

"Oh, not far, sir," said Kear, kicking up the speed of his trotting to come up next to Yusuke. The sword bundle bounced off his back and his still unlit lantern swung from his hand. "give it about a mile or two, and we should come up on it soon…what is it?" he said in a lower tone when Yusuke stopped in his tracks.

"I'm not sure," muttered Yusuke. "but I think we might be being followed. I keep hearing rustling in the bushes and…" he turned to survey the path behind them, especially the sides. Kear watched over his shoulder, then his eyes narrowed.

For several long moments nothing happened.

"_Eeep_." Kear said, put a hand to his chest, and fell to the path with a spear though him, his cloak setting around him in a heap.

Yusuke left him for the moment, as another spear thudded into the ground near him, and spun around, his hand out, just in time to catch someone at nose level. There was an audible crunch and a man staggered back, blood streaming off his face as he clutched his nose with both hands, dropping the spear he'd been holding.

He didn't stop there but kept the movement going and fisted his hand, the next man that emerged from the trees met it with the side of his head. The man's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell.

It short, it was just that, short. Yusuke had grown up on surprise attacks on the streets of the city and this was nothing compared to that. Bandits fell with surprising regularity until no more emerged from the tree line. At that point Yusuke was the only one left standing on the path, his knuckles scraped and only mildly out of breath. The old Bat had put him through worse in a day's training.

Then he remembered and bolted over to his guide.

"Hey, Kear! You okay?" That was a ridiculous question, but it was the only one he could think to ask. He knelt down next to the guide who lay on the path, his face obscured but the spear sticking from his chest making it frightfully apparent why he was not moving.

Yusuke reached out to cautiously touch him, and his fingers when right through to his temporary astonishment.

"Wait a second…" he glared at the crumpled figure. "…get up, you bastard, and stop faking, that thing went right through you."

On the ground Kear giggled. "Heh, your right, sir, it did, but I'm kind of stuck." He lifted an arm, and pointed at the spear. "…umm could you pull this out? If I make my hand real enough to take it out, I'll be real enough to be speared, sir, which could be kind of inconvenient."

"Yeah, we won't want that would we?" snapped Yusuke as he reached out and took the spear in his hand and gave it a hard wrench. To his relief it came out quite easily. Probably to Kear's too.

The guide stood, brushed his cloak off, and picked his lantern back up. "Thank you, sir. That's nice of you to not leave me like that, it wasn't fatal, but it would have been very uncomfortable in the meantime." he retrieved the sword- bundle from the ground and slung it over his back again.

"Do you know were those guys came from?"

He nodded. "They were sent by…by him, sir."

"Sent what do mean? And who's 'him'?" Yusuke watched Kear's face contort, then cut him off as he opened his mouth. "Actually on second thought, never mind, you probably can't tell me or are about to just make something up to get me to stop asking you."

"You're smart, Detective."

"No, I'm dumb, but I'm so dumb, it's a special kind of smart." With that Yusuke kicked an unconscious man out of the way and made to continue down the path until he caught sight of the bandit's faces. They were all practically the same, with very little variation. A longer nose on one, different color hair on the other, but all with a definite similarity as if they were all designed by the same person, who had little imagination.

There wasn't much of a point in mentioning this however, but Yusuke stored this away in his mind for later. It might be important. You never knew.

**--------------------------------------------**

As promised, it came in a few miles. There the path forked, one side leading deeper into the wood, the other left the forest and ventured out onto the plains.

Stopping at the crossroads Yusuke braced his hands on his hips and waited for his guide to catch up. Due to the shortness of his legs Kear had fallen somewhat behind.

"So," Yusuke asked him when he came up next to him. "which way to these people?"

"To the left," Kear pointed to the path that lead deeper into the woods. "that's were the first person is, but later we'll need to go that way," he pointed to the path that led to the open plains.

"It encourages me to no end that you say the first. I don't like to think that there could be a thousand or so I'm supposed to be saving."

"I can't tell you about-"

"I know, I know," Yusuke turned toward the left path. "you can't tell me anything, I've got that much by now." And he would have gone on to make it clear how annoying this was, and how it was fairly irritating to be wandering around without knowing what he was doing when the person stepped out of the shadows ahead on the path, and into the light.

It was Botan.

With a wince Yusuke pressed a hand to the side of his head as something jolted through his head.

_That's right, Botan was there when we fought, she can with us when we…_

_She came with us…_

_That's right…she was with us when…_

Another jolt and it was gone.

"Is that you Yusuke?" asked Botan, stepping forward cautiously. She was in clothes that couldn't have clashed with the surrounds more. In a sweeping blue dress, lined with lace, her hair up in an elaborate design she looked as if she had wandered out of some medieval court as few moments ago. "I'd come Yusuke," she went on. "but I have to go to the ball, you see, I'll be in trouble if I don't. He'll be very angry if I don't."

Yusuke couldn't help but stare at her, and not because she was jabbering nonsense. Even though he loved Kayko dearly, he'd never seen Botan look so…well how on earth were you supposed to describe that?

He was so caught up in it that he didn't notice when his guide set his lantern on the ground, opened its little door, and disappeared. The next moment a flame burned on the wick in the lantern and the sword-bundle clattered to the ground. Yusuke glanced back at the noise, noticing his guide was gone.

"Kear?" he poked at the sword bundle with his foot. "Kear? Where'd you run off to?" and when he turned back to the left path, Botan was gone too. "can't anybody stick around here, why are they all running off all the sudden?"

But unsurprisingly, no one answered him.

He was alone.

With a sigh he reached down and took up the sword-bundle, the little guy had been pestering him to take it, so he might as well. Cutting his teeth on street fights had taught him that something with a sharp edge always came in handy in a tight spot.

Unwrapping it he took a moment to examine the blade. Yusuke knew next to nothing about swords, but even he could tell that this was a really piece of craftsmanship. The blade looked razor sharp, gleaming in the sunlight threateningly, the hilt felt perfectly balanced with it and was comfortable in his hand. It was a fairly plain weapon, though there was some simple ornamental scrollwork on the guard, and the hilt was set with a dull red gem.

"Damn," whistled Yusuke as he touched his thumb lightly to the edge, and cut it. "this is a hellva sword." Carefully he tucked the sword into a loop on his jeans, and made a note not to fall on his left side.

That is, if he wanted to keep his left leg attached.

Not really sure what to do next he decided to err on the side of caution and go down the left path as Kear had advised. And he was about to do just that, in fact, he was almost down it, when he caught sight of something in the dirt.

Curiously, he scooped it up and found it to be a shoe, the kind with a high heel, the kind girls wore when they dressed up. It was clear and see-through. With a fingernail he tapped on the shoe, it was clear enough to be plastic, but sounded like glass.

Yusuke frowned. "What kind of idiot makes a shoe out of glass? And what kind of idiot would wear it, now that I think of it?" But now, wasn't this right were Botan had been standing, now that he thought about it? And hadn't she been all dressed up, and maybe wearing shoes like this? "Huh," he muttered, mostly to himself.

There didn't seem to be anything for him to do about it. He tucked the heel of the shoe into his pocket, and continued on.

Stranger things had happened that day after all.

**--------------------------------------------**

It didn't happen all at once, but gradually, so that Yusuke didn't notice the trees shifting into stone columns or the floor changing to marble blocks until his feet felt the stone. He was in a forest no longer; it was a hall, long, lined by carved pillars on the sides.

From the end there drifted the sound of music, like that classical stuff Kurama listened to sometimes.

The other end of the hall, when he looked over his shoulder, was a dead-end of smooth stone. It seemed he was strongly encouraged to go toward the music, so he did so, trotting down the hall but pausing at the elaborately carved doorway.

Partially he paused because he'd been trained to do so before walking into a room he didn't know and partially out of surprise for what he saw in the room beyond.

It was a massive room that had all the signs of being a ballroom, the floor was black and white marble, the wall draped with colorful cloth, and many people crowded into it, mostly dancing. They were dressed in an old style, one that was strange to Yusuke, flowing coats and dresses with lace. The gowns of the women were a thousand different colors, like flowers, while the men dressed somewhat less colorfully, but no less flamboyantly.

In the corner, a small string quartet played away at the mellow tune as the people danced to it.

In short, the entire scene completely baffled Yusuke.

He tapped a finger reflectively off the glass shoe. "I have to go to the ball, she said." he muttered under his breath, tucking himself into a corner shadow at the door. "And a she left a glass shoe…sounds like that old fairy tale mom read me once. Cinderella, I think it was. Oh, damn, now I'm talking to myself. Now I know I'm going cra-"

Botan danced by, on the arm of a man and Yusuke's train of thought did the mental equivalent of a train wreck.

The man she danced with was one of those European types, curly blond hair, blue eyes, muscular form. But there was something off about him and them together. As they swept across the floor, Yusuke kept out of sight and watched them as they moved toward the opposite side of the room.

Every now and then Botan made an awkward hop or stumble and he saw when her dress swirled that this was because she only wore one high-heeled shoe, a match of the one he had in his pocket.

But there seemed to be something wrong with the couple, Botan's face was pale and her expression almost pained.

Two facts presented themselves to him, and hit him over the head with realizations.

The first was that the man Botan danced with was a demon. There were tiny horns curling up at the corners of his forehead and his fingers ended in talons, which made it easy to spot him as what he was. Also the demon wasn't bothering to hide his aura at all, it was easy for Yusuke to pick up.

And the second fact was the demon was gripping Botan by the waist so hard that his talons appeared to be sinking through her dress. He held her hand so tightly that her fingers were white in his. She tried to twist away from him once or twice, the demon only smiled unpleasantly and pulled her closer.

That was more than enough for Yusuke to be more than a bit ticked off, Botan was dancing with a demon, and she didn't like it. Immediately he began judging how fast he could get across the ballroom to her, he didn't like watching women get hurt. It stirred up all kinds of protective feelings in him that were probably a bit sexist, but were unavoidable.

Across the room, Botan stumbled again, and unable to recover, fell against the demon. He dropped her and drew back in disgust. One taloned hand drew back to strike her and Yusuke made his move.

He hooked the shoe out of his pocket and hurled it without a second thought. It turned lazily a few times before it impacted with the demon's face. Being made of glass it shattered as it hit, cutting some shallow slashes on his face.

Yusuke followed right after the projectile, already powering up his finger with energy.

The demon was straightening up, recovering for the blow and shook his head in a dazed way.

Though Yusuke didn't notice, the people who had been dancing continued to mindlessly continue on in their little circles, without seeming to see anything else that happened.

"Spirit Gun!" shouted Yusuke firing off from only a few yards away.

With incredible agility the demon drew a sword from the sheath from his side and held it crossways in front of him, supporting it with both hands. The ball of Spirit Energy hit the blade and to Yusuke's surprise it ricocheted off toward the ceiling. The demon shouted, waving an arm and the people in the room vanished as if they had never been there.

"How did you get in here?" demanded the demon, his blue eyes flashing angrily. "How did you find this place, Spirit Detective?"

"Beats me," replied Yusuke, eyeing the demon's sword. "I've got one of those to." he drew the sword (carefully) from the loop of his jeans and hefted it. The sword edge shown blue, he could feel it drawing from his energy to do so. A magic sword, this got even better.

"Botan," he said to her. "back away some."

With a nod she scrambled back, scooting on the floor until she could press her back against the wall.

The sword was a little heavier than had Yusuke thought, his wrist hurt some already, the demon showed no sign of having trouble with his at all.

"Turn around, and leave right now and I will not hurt you, Detective," the demon said. "really I'm impressed you are here at all. If there was time, I would ask you how you did it, but for now, leave and stay alive."

"And why would I do that?" spat Yusuke. "You're hurtin' Botan, that ticks me off. More than that, you gave me lip. I'd kick your ass for that alone even if you didn't try to hit her." lifting his sword and ignoring the ache in his wrist he glared at the demon. "And this sword is just the thing to do it with." His sword glinted an even brighter blue as if the sun had hit it, though there was none in this bizarre place.

"What would the likes of you know of the blade?"

That was a small problem, Yusuke wasn't really positive about how to use a sword, beyond the basics and the demon looked as if he knew what he could do with his.

But what the demon didn't know wouldn't hurt. "I know more than enough," bluffed Yusuke trying to remember if Genkai had covered anything about swords in her training.

She had, but it had been a brief lesson. After all what were the chances he'd use one?

Very good, apparently.

The demon cut out and to the side and Yusuke had to scramble to get his weapon in the way so he didn't get his head cut off. But when the swords clashed, everything changed.

Again the demon struck out at him, a mirror of the first slash but on the other side.

It was if someone had reached down through his arms and made them move for him. His muscles reacted as if he had spent year honing them. Whoever, or whatever it was made the blue in the blade moved up to his hands and arms and blocked the blow with enough time to retaliate.

To his own surprise, the demon's too most likely, his feet shifted so his balance was just right then he stabbed out forward. The demon danced back, light on his feet, and Yusuke found himself stabbing out again, throwing the other man more off balance. It took only a moment for the demon to recover, but it was enough to convince Yusuke.

The sword was the only thing that could be using him like a puppet, after all, it was probably magic. He relaxed and let it take a stronger control over him. It knew what it was doing a hell of a lot better than he did, after all.

He swiped out and the demon countered, their swords clanging. The demon was sweating, nervous his eyes wary on Yusuke.

The sword directed him into a series of quick blows, each driving the demon a little farther back. He blocked them, but lost ground as he did it.

Yusuke couldn't get the demon to stay still long enough to strike him and he was getting tired fast. Even if the sword was controlling him, he didn't think he could hold out much longer.

Then Botan reached out, and grabbed the demon around the ankle.

The demon, his balance thrown off, stumbled, Yusuke felt his arms stab forward. His sword took the demon through the chest to both of their surprise.

"…not possible…" whispered the demon, a trickle of blood leaking from his mouth. He looked up at Yusuke, locking eyes with him. "…not poss…ible…" he said again.

His sword fell from his hand and he slumped forward. The demon's outline blurred, bits of him broke off and disappeared. In moments, the demon fragmented more and more, until he was gone.

Yusuke's arm fell limply to his side, his sword freed. Slowly the blue glow faded from its edge and he could feel its influence withdrawing.

"You okay?" he asked Botan.

She nodded.

"Who was that?"

"His name is Thallen," she got carefully to her feet, kicking off her remaining shoe. "where's the others?"

"What do you mean 'others'?" Yusuke put his sword back through his pants loop. "Everyone's been vague on details lately."

"I mean Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei too, haven't you freed them yet?" she asked.

He gave her a perplexed look. "They're here?"

"Of course. You mean you came to save me first?" there was an odd expression on his face; he couldn't quite read it, though it was something like tearful thankfulness.

The tearful part made Yusuke somewhat nervous. "Look, I didn't really know what was going on, someone just told me to go this way. I didn't even know I was supposed to save someone I knew."

Botan smiled at him. "But that you came to save me first means a lot to me Yusuke, it really does. I'm glad to know you thought of me."

"Wait, I really didn't-"

"And I have to go again."

"What, where?"

She gave him another strange look. "_Back_, were else would I go. Back to my real body, in the real world." As Yusuke started to speak again she held up her hand. "No, I don't have time, and you don't either, you need to save the others. They're in a lot of danger right now."

"But, wait, I just killed that demon, right?" he protested.

"No, that was only part of him." Botan gestured around. "This is all Thallen's creation but this part should fade now that's he's gone."

Yusuke frowned another bit of memory hit him.

"_I am Aleara, an angel of dimensions," the winged women had said._

_"Oh yeah, pull the other one, it's got fuckin' bells on it." he'd replied_.

"Does the name Aleara mean anything to you?" he asked.

Blinking at him in surprise Botan replied. "Yes, of course, she's a very well known angel especially because…" she trailed off mid-sentence.

"Don't stop!" Yusuke said quickly. "It could be important."

"Sorry," she smiled at him. "I have to go. I can't and don't want to stay here any longer."

"Wait!" he reached out for her, but before he could grab her arm, she tilted her head to the sky her arms out-stretched. She flickered, then was gone, his fingers passing through the place were she was only seconds before.

As he stood, arm out, the hall around his doubled in his sight, everything seen twice, the two images moving farther and farther away from each other. Finally when Yusuke felt like his eyes were never going to uncross, his vision cleared.

He was standing on a forest path.

Ahead was a crossroads that looked familiar.

**--------------------------------------------**

The lantern still sat on the path, right were it had been before. The little door on it creaked open and the flame in it disappeared. The next moment the guide, Kear, stood next to his lantern, stooping to pick it up. He froze when a sword point found his throat.

"Hello, sir," he kept his eyes on the sword. "I see you've done what you came here to do."

"I thought so," said Yusuke. "you hid in your little lantern when the demon got nearby, because he can hurt you, like he can hurt my team. This sword is all kinds of special and it can really hurt Thallen, so I bet it can slice you even if _I_ pass though you."

Kear's eyes were a full green when he looked up. "Very clever, sir. But I'm just here as a guide, nowhere in my agreement that I made does it say I have to fight Thallen."

"He doesn't go through you like I do, right? And I bet he can really injure you."

His guide looked scared for the first time. He sat on the path, hard. "Thallen…he can snap my mind and make my real body his personal doll if he gets a hold of me. And I didn't volunteer for that sort of thing. I'm just here to guide you, sir, and to fill in if you start asking remembering things. Which you have, I'll assume, sir."

"Yeah. Some. It's nice that you're so talkative now, if I knew that all I had to do was take this stupid sword, I would have done it sooner. Speaking of which," he reversed his grip on the sword and held it out to Kear, hilt first. "take this thing back."

He blinked at him. "Why, sir, would you want to get rid of it now that you know it is so handy against Thallen?"

"It took over my body."

"It's supposed to do that, it is a magic sword after all, sir,"

"Don't get smartass on me!"

"Yessir."

Since it was clear that Kear wasn't about to take the sword back, Yusuke put it back through his pants loop. "Stupid guide."

"Are you sure that you want to waste time like this, sir?"

Now he was suspicious. "You mean the rest of my team, I need to get them, right?"

Kear smiled up at him from his seat on the path. "And the longer you wait, the more likely it is that Thallen is getting closer to them."

"Damn," swore Yusuke. "just typical."

And it was very likely that he would have gone on arguing with him for a very long time if the scream hadn't shattered the air at that very moment.

Yusuke felt cold fingers touch his spine as the scream went on and on, longer than anyone with human lungs could have managed. He had heard that scream once before, when its owner was having their skin blown from their body, one bomb at a time, during the Dark Tournament.

"Shit. That's Kurama." he murmured, then turned to his guide. "Which way?"

"You've already been down the left path, sir, take the right." Kear pointed down the trail that lead out of the forest.

The scream guttered into silence that was almost as ugly. People in that much pain only stopped screaming when something silenced them. It was not a good thought.

Yusuke took off down the right-hand path without a moment's more hesitation.

Before continuing after him, Kear fished out his small pocket watch and frowned at it. "Oh dear," he murmured to himself. "We're late, we're late, for a very important date." he tucked the watch back into his cloak and stood to hurry after Yusuke. On the air behind him lingered the words: "No time to say, hello, goodbye, we're late! We're late! We're _late_!"

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	3. Wherein There Are Apples

**Tales of Rescuing**

Dane Soar

Sorry about the lateness of this chapter, I know the last one ended on something of a cliffy, thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully none of the others will be this late and if they are, I promise you, there coming eventually!

A cookie to the person who caught the Alice in Wonderland movie reference, there are more of those to come. Please review.

Since it's been so long, let me recap, Yusuke herd Kurama scream bloody murder and took off running, now he's in the process of getting to him.

**---------------------------**

Chapter 2** Wherein There Are Apples And Yusuke Asks Some More Questions (Which Are Kind Of Sort Of Answered)**

**---------------------------**

_(Snow White)_

So fast was Yusuke running, he missed the men lying in wait until he ran right into them. Actually, then it was a net that he ran into, one that had been laid over the path; when he dashed over it, two men hauled the edges sharply up. He grunted in surprise as he was wrenched into the air, half curled around himself in the net.

The men stood up from the long grass they had been crouched in, revealing that there were five of the bandits. Two held a long wood pole that the net was attached to, dragging the corners up so Yusuke was completely trapped.

"I don't…have time… for this!" he gritted out, cramped and grumpy. Flailing some, he tried to free himself from the folds of the net, but it clung. "Lemme go you…_oof_!"

One of the men, probably bandits like the last attackers, drove the end of his spear into his stomach, silencing him.

"Stay still and stay quiet." the man told him levelly.

Wheezing some to get his breath back Yusuke made a rude gesture at him. The man hit him over the head hard enough to make him see stars.

Meanwhile he was thinking two things the first being: where the hell did Kear run off to? and the second: why is it taking so long to get a hold of this stupid sword? It was a miracle that he hadn't sliced himself open when he got grabbed.

He was working his hand through the net to get it on the sword-hilt, after a few moments he was able to grab it and start sawing at the ropes. But there were a lot of ropes to cut through and it wouldn't take long for the bandits to notice what he was doing.

Yusuke knew that he didn't have time to waste here with these men, he needed to get to Kurama, to make sure that the reason that he had stopped screaming was not because he was dead. And after that, there was the rest of his team in danger, none of then were getting any safer while he dangled here!

Renewing his efforts to escape, he almost missed Kear when he appeared. Later, he wouldn't be sure if the guide had literally appeared out of thin air, or if he had just been moving too fast to be seen until then.

Much to Yusuke's surprise Kear lashed out at the closest man, not with his fist, but with his foot. With a roundhouse kick of his boot to the man's chin, he grounded him and was already moving onto the next bandit.

By now Yusuke had sawed through two ropes and only needed to cut a few more to get a space large enough to fit through. Luckily Kear's appearance was distracting enough that the two men holding the pole through the net weren't watching him.

Kear faced down another man who was easily twice his size, his fisted hands up in a guard position. He swung, but it was a faint, and he followed it with a sharp up-kick, that hit was hard to see in his cloak, to the man between the legs. The bandit went white, knocked kneed, and fell.

"Yusuke!" the small guide dodged sharply to the side to let a man blunder by him. "Go, while you can!"

Cutting the last few strands of the net, Yusuke tumbled out of it's folds, making sure he turned before he fell so he landed on his right side and didn't skewer himself on his sword. "What about you?"

In response Kear gave him a look that said: "Does it look like I can't take care of myself?" then ducked as a bandit rushed him from behind, letting the man fall over him, using his hip to help, then kicking him in the stomach to keep him down. It was quite a feat for someone so small. "These are just underlings of Thallen, he created then to slow you down, sir! Go, I will catch up when I can!"

Clearly he didn't need any help; apparently he could make himself solid enough to kick some bandit ass.

These men, like the ones before, Yusuke now noticed, looked very similar, like variations off the same mold. It explained a lot if they were created by the demon.

But he needed to be somewhere else right now.

Yusuke took off running.

**--------------------------------------------**

The sounds of fighting fell away quickly as he fell into a steady lope that wasn't his top speed, but it was the one that he could hold for the longest time. Genkai had pounded into his head that there was no point in running a full-blown sprit. Even if it got you there faster, it got you there winded and unable to do anything but gasp for breath. He'd be no use to Kurama like that.

Once the screaming of what Yusuke hoped was his guide beating the living hell out of the bandits there wasn't much to focus on but the pound of his feet on the path and the whistling of wind through the tall grass that lined it. It was nerve-racking to think of what might be happening while he was saving his strength pacing himself.

Had he been only a little later arriving to help Botan, she could have been hurt badly by that demon. And in this case, he sure that he might arrive to late to help and the delay of the bandit attack had taken more time he didn't have to waste.

So caught up in his thoughts he was that he bumped into the person before he saw them. It was a wrinkled old woman, half bent with age, and from her arms tumbled bright red apples as Yusuke bumped her.

She shrieked in rage at him, then when she caught sight of his face, hers changed. A smiled broke out which it showed that she had no teeth.

Yusuke knew he had no time to stop and do anything but as he ran on, he heard cackling laughter coming after him. Only a minute later he realized that the old woman had had tiny horns at the corners of her head and blue eyes. The demon!

He whipped around to look behind him at the old woman.

She was gone.

Before he could see it, the path crumbled under his feet and Yusuke dropped into darkness.

**--------------------------------------------**

"Sir?" _Poke, poke._ "Sir, are you awake?" _Poke, poke._

He growled and lunged at the person. But all he collided with was the ground, though it was hard to see in the semidarkness. "Kear?" Yusuke asked. "Are you here?"

"You're lying _in_ me sir. Again. It's really very uncomfortable."

"Okay, okay, I'll move," Scrabbling he found the uneven wall and propped his back against it. There were slants of light coming down from the ceiling that he could see by. "feels like a cave, how long was I out. Did I fall in the roof?"

Now he could see his guide, shapeless in his cloak, nod. "I climbed down, but I don't think I can get back up. You were out for about half of an hour"

"So, were now if we're trapped here? Maybe I can blast some sort of exit or something."

"No need," Kear pointed down the cave, into the darkness. "that's the way you were going in the first place, this cave, well it's more of a tunnel really, continues in that direction. The entrance was farther along the path, you were supposed to come up on it in about a mile, but this was easier. Now we just follow it, sir."

"Good plan." It was good to see that his guide seemed to knew were he was going. It was also interesting to note that Kear seemed no much worse for wear for fighting off all those bandits, even if it was all on his own. And those men had been more than half his size larger!

"Sir?" he asked, on his feet and waiting for him.

"Coming," Yusuke got to his feet, following the guide down the tunnel.

**--------------------------------------------**

About ten minutes and an hour later, he was cursing the tunnel as he banged his shin into another rock. As they got farther away from the place he had fallen though the ceiling there was less and less light in the tunnel.

"Try to keep your voice down," Kear whispered ahead of him. "sound will carry, and we don't know how far ahead trouble is. And how did you learn demonic cursing?"

"Teammates from the Makai. And I can't see a damn…ow, another rock…damn thing. Can't you light that lamp of yours?"

In front of him he could see the silhouette of his guide stiffen. "Good idea, the…trouble is nearby, I think."

Something occurred to Yusuke. He remembered seeing Kear emerge from the lantern and it becoming unlit. "Wait, are you going to…"

Too late.

The lantern cast a circle of light from its place on the ground and there was no sign of Kear at all. Picking it up Yusuke lifted it so that he could flick in the door of the lantern and peer in. "Run away in there again, have you?"

In response the door clicked closed.

"Whatever."

Holding the lantern high he continued about down the tunnel, the other hand on his sword hilt. It always paid to be careful.

And it turned out when Kear said nearby; he really meant it, because around the next bend the tunnel opened up into a huge cave. Yusuke realized that the tunnel must have been gradually sloped downward until he was pretty far underground.

The cave was both illuminated and crowded by vines, big, thick vines, that glowed a green phosphorescent from their long evil looking thorns.

It took a few more moments than it should have for Yusuke to put two and two together and come up with Kurama. Then he picked out the formed, huddled in what was roughly the middle of the cavern, arms about itself.

"Kurama?" he asked, quietly. "Umm…Kurama?"

"…Yusuke…? Is that you…?" the form moved some, raised his head.

"Yeah, it's me." he shrugged. "Who else could I be?"

"Stay still," said the figure, simply. The vines in the room shuddered and began to move. With an uncomfortable groaning sound they shifted so that they no longer blocked the entire room, staking themselves at the walls in a disturbingly neat way.

When the vines finished moving, Yusuke noticed that things had been wrapped up in them were now dropped to the cavern floor. The vines still shone though not brightly enough to let him see what they were, but when he lifted the lantern toward the nearest mound, what it was became clear.

The mounds were bodies.

Very small bodies. And seven of them.

Seven dwarves…all dead, wounds in their bodies glimmering darkly, wetly, black in the underground light.

And Kurama…

Yusuke shook his head hard. No, this was _Kurama_ they were talking about. At least, he thought it was Kurama. He lifted the lantern as high as he could so he could see the form in the center of the cavern, taking a step forward. His foot hit something that rolled a little way in front of him, into better light.

It was an apple, with one bite out of it. As casually as he could, Yusuke scooped it up and continued toward the figure.

Once his lantern light fell on the figure, he knew it was Kurama within the instant. The red hair, the green eyes, it was all recognizable, but there was something that was nagging at him that wasn't right.

Considering what happened last time with Botan when something had been nagging at him then he was trying to figure out was it was.

"Kurama?" Yusuke asked, a little unsurely.

"Yes, it's me, who else could I be?" he echoed Yusuke's words earlier. Then he smiled, and the smile was right, the smile was as it should have been. "How were you able to find me? I thought…well, no, that couldn't be right…I was lost, lost here and I thought none of the others would be able to find me here."

"Your making more sense than anyone else I've talked to here, Kurama, but you're not really talking to reasonably. Here, have an apple and tell me what the hell is going on." He offered the red apple to him.

Kurama shied away from the apple, his eyes wary. "Yusuke, put that down."

"What, why? It's just an apple."

"_Drop_ it, Yusuke!"

On reflex he let go of the apple and Kurama kicked it away.

"That it not just an apple. It's, well, I'm not completely sure what,"

Now Yusuke put his finger on what was wrong with Kurama. Yes, his eyes were green, but they had an odd look in them, as if every now and then he was stopping to look or listen to something Yusuke couldn't. Also when he spoke his words were a little off, by know Yusuke knew the way Kurama spoke very well and this wasn't it. It sounded too human, too personal.

It was not right.

But then again, what was here?

Kurama dropped his head into his hands, which were shaking and splattered with black dots. When he looked closer, Yusuke knew it was blood and not Kurama's. "Yusuke, I'm afraid that I've killed these people, all of them, they took me in and I…I've killed them, more innocents. More blood on my hands, more blood that-"

"Stop. You're not making any sense at all, really," He put a hand on his shoulder and exerted downward pressure. "Sit. You're being all weird and you don't look good. Sit down before you fall down."

Obediently, he sat and Yusuke sat next to him, keeping his hand on his shoulder. Hopefully it would be some sort of comfort, though he wasn't really good at this sort of thing, usually Kurama was the person who dealt with people at times like this, mostly because he was best at it.

Lacking any actual knowledge of what to do he tried to maintain a level and calm tone. "Look, take a breath, calm down, and tell me what the hell happened."

The kitsune nodded and closed his eyes briefly before he began to speak.

But before he said anything, Yusuke felt a jolt to his head.

_"This demon is very dangerous," Koenma had said. "but I hope that all of you can deal with him. If not he'll run rampant and kill more people." _

_"Don't they all?" he'd rolled his eyes, saying. "Sorry Kurama, Hiei, no offence you guys."_

_Hiei took his hand off his sword hilt and Kurama shrugged. "Well it is what we do most often,"_

Then Kuwabara had butted in on the conversation. "Shouldn't we get out of here while this demon is still around were he was last seen?"

_"Good plan," Yusuke had said. "let's go and kill this guy, I'm hungry for lunch."_

Back in the present, Kurama spoke. "When I appeared here, I was…confused, to say the least. I think that Thallen might have made it like that purposely. But when these people," he nodded to the corpses around the cavern. "these dwarves, they took me into their caves. They were quite kind, you know, but an old woman offered me an apple not to long ago. I was foolish. Now I know that know. I took the apple, I've never had anything to fear from fruit, it is a plant after all. But when I bit into it…" Kurama shivered, not a lot, but enough that Yusuke could feel in through the hand he still had on his shoulder. "…it was a trap."

"_What_?! An apple?"

"Never seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?" Yusuke looked blankly at him. "No? Never mind then. But Yusuke, you have to understand…" he met his eyes with the gaze did not perhaps quite see him. "I'm not all here."

"Not all here? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"That apple, it was some sort of spell, it hacked into my mind. Then it split my mind and my forms."

"Kurama," he shook him, but not too hard, just enough to make him appear to actually _see_ him for the first time. "I need you to tell me what you mean. If you keep being vague, I'm serious, I'll charge you. Now explain the not all here thing."

"I have two forms, Yusuke, this one," he tapped a finger on his chest. "and the form of the Youko. When I took a bite from the apple…it spilt the two. It…it hurt quite a lot. I think I cried out, though I'm not sure, but I do know that I lashed out with my power. I didn't mean to, it was reflex really, more than anything else. And these people… when I lashed out, I killed them." again Kurama shivered and he ran one hand over the back of the other, smearing the blood on it. "I wouldn't have done it if I could have stopped myself, but I had no knowledge it until not long ago. Perhaps I blacked out and when I woke, those who took me in were dead and I was wrapped in vines I must have summoned in an attempt to protect myself. The old woman, or whatever she was, who gave me the apple looked like she was gone, but I couldn't be sure. So I stayed like that, at least until you came, Yusuke," his shoulders slumped. "that's all there is."

"You mean Youko Kurama is running around somewhere?"

Kurama shook his head. "No, there is me running around somewhere, that is why I said, I'm not all here. I'm not."

"Oh," Yusuke scratched his head and got to his feet. "that explains some of it," Like how Kurama was all distant and his eyes grew strange every now and then, also how he didn't seem like the normal Kurama. It was the more Shuichi like parts of him, Kurama, but at the same time, not Kurama because all the Youko bits weren't there and Kurama couldn't be himself if the parts of his past weren't there.

It wasn't like they were two different people, but Yusuke could tell that Kurama was being distracted by the fact that he was looking at were the rest of him he was. That was why he was so strange.

"So, the old lady was the demon," Yusuke put his hands on his hips, looking around the cavern and trying not to look to hard at the corpses, feeling the weight of his sword at his side. "and that means it'll be around here somewhere. I had to kill the first bit, probably that applies here too."

"No," Kurama also stood and he appeared to be more steady on his feet. "it's gone. Now that you're here I can tell. But that doesn't bode well for you; it means that there is a loose bit of it running around, possibly after the loose piece of me and…" he stopped, then hissed in pain before clutching his side.

"What's the matter?" asked Yusuke at once.

"It's…it's…" Kurama again had the far away gaze as he'd had before and Yusuke put his hand back on his shoulder because he was wavering in a way that was worrying.

"Maybe you should sit back down."

"It's… not that, I…" he grabbed Yusuke's arm and the grip was wet.

When Yusuke looked down to see why his eyes widened in surprise. "Holy shit, you're bleeding! What the hell happened to your side?"

"Not me, the other…other me."

He shoved down on his shoulder and made him sit down again. "I can't help you if I don't get what the hell your talking about."

"The other me, the one in Youko form, he's been wounded." he bit his lip and fingers to his side glimmered wet with blood.

"Where?" Yusuke asked simply. "If you can guide me, that'd be great, my other guide is a pain in the ass."

"A forest, a dark, dark, forest that's all I can tell you, I only know that much because it is me. But Yusuke," he looked up at him. "the other me, Youko, is in trouble, he's frightened and running and wounded, and none of that is good. The demon is after him, I don't know in what form, but it is chasing him. And if Youko is caught, he will be killed…"

"And you die too. Okay, got it. Now lets go, kill Thallen, and it'll all be good."

But Kurama shook his head. "I can't go with you. I have to leave now that you've agreed to help the rest of me."

"Like Botan, when she left?"

"Botan had been freed?"

He rolled his eyes. "Forget it, go if you can't stay here."

"Thank you." Kurama's form was no longer solid, and Yusuke could see through him. His hand dropped through the kitsune's shoulder as Kurama disappeared completely.

"Damn," remarked Yusuke. "I wonder if any of them know how creepy that is." As with before the cavern doubled in his sight and when his vision cleared he was back on the path in the middle of the rolling plains. He was also still holding the lantern.

He threw it.

The door opened, the flame inside disappeared, and Kear stood on the path beside him, as see-through as ever. Casually he reached out and plucked the lantern out of the air before it hit the ground.

"You were too late." He said bluntly, a statement, not a question.

"Yeah." again, just a statement.

"And, sir, your friend paid for it."

"I know," Yusuke's grip on the sword hilt was white knuckled. "and trust me, it won't happen again."

"Good." Kear nodded with satisfaction. "But there is a possibility things could be even more complicated because of the fact that one of the parts of Thallen is rouge. You realize that, sir."

"Of course I do. Now which way do I go to get to were I need to be?"

His guide pointed down the path. "A few miles this way and we'll be at the edge of the Grim Forest. And that's Grim Forest with a capital G and F, sir."

Yusuke shrugged. "Of course, it's always a dark evil forest. Isn't that how the story usually goes, the hero has to go through the dark forest to…well, do whatever he was to do."

Kear gave him a strange look. "Who says you're the hero in this tale, sir?"

"I say so." he turned and began down the path at a steady trot.

But Kear didn't follow him at once, as usual; instead he reached into his cloak and fished out his small silver pocket watch. He studied the inside carefully. "Well, well, I think we might just have a chance. But it'll be night soon and it's a bad idea to go into the Grim Forest at night. Sir would have to be idiot to do that." he glanced at the receding figure in the distance. "Better remind him."

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

TBC 

**Please Review.**


	4. Wherein There Is A Tower

**Tales of Rescuing**

Dane Soar

A really long chapter here, but I couldn't split it up because each chapter is supposed to be a person's. I hope you like this one, it was interesting to plan out.

Thanks to Twiddle-Dumb for editing for me.

**---------------------------**

**Chapter 3 Wherein There Is A Tower And Yusuke Asks Personal Questions (Which Are Surprisingly Answered)**

**---------------------------**

_(Rapunzil)_

Yusuke poked the fire with a stick, feeling slightly guilty. It was night and the wind was whistling through the grass and also through the leaves in the trees of the Grim Forest to his immediate left.

Of course, Kear had insisted that they wait until it was light again before they could even set a toe into the line of trees; he hadn't even let him go in to get firewood. Instead, he had made him chop up one of the scraggly trees that bordered the plains with his sword; though Yusuke felt bad about using such a lovely weapon for that sort of thing, there was nothing he could really do if he wanted a fire.

And Kear had insisted there be a fire, too. He'd not been very specific about why, just vaguely hinting that dark things could possibly roam out of the Forest and that a fire could deter them.

In retaliation, Yusuke had pointed out that a fire was as good as a beacon to those 'dark things'. Then Kear struck back by saying that Yusuke had the magic sword; if the fire didn't put off the dark things, he'd be able to deal with it on his own. And Yusuke had told him, "Touché," and left it at that.

After the fire had been lit, the silence had stretched between them to the point of uncomfortableness, at least on Yusuke's part. He was watching Kear out of the corner of his eye and poking at the fire in turn.

Kear, for his part was gazing into the fire, breaking a stick into smaller and smaller bits. His eyes weren't focused, it was as if he was looking somewhere else. The firelight flickered off his round face and gave him shadows around the eyes that didn't make him look young.

This little guy took down all those bandits by himself, nevertheless he could pass through things on a whim. He had been hazy on a lot of things, but one was what exactly he was. By nature Yusuke didn't like secrets, they were annoying and usually important.

"What, sir?" the guide asked after a little while, noticing his looks.

"I was just curious,"

He threw the tiny twigs he had broken up into the fire. "I can't tell you anything more, you know, sir. So if you're about to start asking questions again, it won't do much good."

"I wasn't gonna ask about this place, but I kind of wanted to ask about you…err, who are you?" he wanted to add, "_What_ are you?" But that didn't seem right, after all this guy was the one who was guiding him. If he offended him, who knew where he could end up.

"Who am I?" repeated Kear. "Well, for a start, I'm Kear, sir, the guide." He obviously didn't like talking about himself, his furry ears were pressed close to his head as if he was uncomfortable.

"Are you a demon?" pressed Yusuke.

Again that distant look got in his eyes, which were all blue. "I was at one time, I suppose, sir, but then again, I was many things at many different times," The fire popped as he shrugged. "right now, I'm Kear, the guide, sir. Perhaps it's best to just leave it at that."

"Have you always been called Kear?" he was pressing the subject he knew, but he was dumb and persistent and wasn't about to drop it.

"Yes, it's always been Kear, but the titles after it change. Sometimes it's 'Protector', or 'Teacher', or Sage', though it's always Kear. That doesn't change, sir. Mostly now, sir, I sleep."

Yusuke frowned. "But you're here, awake and talking to me, what do you mean, sleep?"

"By now I'm sure you've figured out that this place is not quite…real, it's a somewhere else," he waited for Yusuke's nod before going on. "so while we're here, my body is asleep somewhere else, sir," Kear looked smaller as he wrapped his arms around himself. "every now and then I need to sleep for a long time, so I don't have to…to watch people I care about grow old, while I'm still stuck being young, you see, sir."

"Sorry I asked," he said, which seemed right, because Kear smiled wanly at him.

"It's alright, sir. I've had a long time to be used to it. But being asleep, that means my mind is floating around all free and bored. So when they said they needed a guide, I volunteered. I mean, it's dangerous, but at least it's something…at least I feel useful."

"Yeah, I kind of know what you mean." and in a small way he did. He knew the feeling when the gap between missions got to long. The feeling he got, sitting around, useless and idle before he would get the call from Koenma via Botan. It wasn't one Yusuke liked.

Kear looked around into the night, away from the fire. "It's late, and it would be a good idea if you slept now, sir."

Now the serious moment was gone. "What about those dark things that are supposed to be wandering around out there?"

"I'll stay up and keep the fire going, sir," he said. "I'm here in different ways, so I don't need to sleep, but your mind still thinks that you do. And trust me, sir, tomorrow you'll want to be wide awake."

Yusuke groaned and rolled his eyes, after taking the sword out of his jeans loop he laid it on the ground beside him before settling down, that way he could get it quickly if trouble came. "Wake me if something happens you can't deal with,"

"Yessir." said Kear and Yusuke saw him, silhouetted by the fire, throw a cheeky salute. He grunted and turned over, trying to shake off the feeling that he was acting oddly Hiei like, what with the sword and all.

That was a thought that made him feel all creepy.

**--------------------------------------------**

When he was positive that Yusuke was well and asleep, Kear reached into his cloak, drawing out his sliver pocket watch. Holding the small thing carefully he murmured over it, letting his breath mist the surface of the metal. Then he flipped it open.

The inside no longer showed the clock-face, but a real human face, an old face framed by gray hair with wise and tired eyes.

"Hello, Master Genkai," he whispered to her. "forgive me for keeping my voice down, but he's sleeping at the moment."

The old women frowned at him. "Master Kear, how are things going on your end?"

"Well enough, though I'm not sure how Kurama will fare, he was spilt in two."  
She nodded. "Botan is alright on this end and Kurama…I'm not sure, he's half here, half not."

"I think that'll be dealt with soon enough, at least, if your student has anything to do with it. He's very determined."

Genkai snorted. "You can say that much about him. Very well, Master Kear, I will continue to monitor things from this end."

"Thank you, Master Genkai, how is the condition of your student from over there?" he leaned closer wanting to hear this bit.

"He seems to be stable for now, but he's not seen much fighting or gotten hurt yet, so we won't know. When that happens," she shrugged. "I'll let you know what happens and I'll have Yukina stand by."

A smiled flitted over Kear's mouth. "Ah, the lovely Madam Yukina, give my thanks to her, and I'll keep things up from in here."

"Good. If things go south, we'll try to pull both of you out, but remember what Aleara said, it might not be possible. Especially you, if Thallen gets his hands on you…"

"I know, "he cut her off. "really, Master Genkai, I was fully aware of the risks when I volunteered. Now I need to tend to the fire, if you'll excuse me?"

"Of course,"

He shut the silver watch and returned it to the inner folds of his cloak. "'The time has come' the walrus said. ' to speak of other things.'" he quoted to himself, stirring the fire with a stick. "like demons and death and destruction of minds and other pleasant things."

**--------------------------------------------**

Yusuke woke almost as the sun came up over the horizon and as the fire went out. Yawning, he stretched to try to get all the kinks out. It'd been a while since he'd had to sleep on the ground and his body was reminding him that it didn't like it.

"G'morning," he said around another yawn.

"Good morning, sir, dare I venture to ask whether or not you are a morning person?" with quick hands Kear was burying the cold ashes of the fire in the dirt.

"They're the bane of my existence. You?"

"Oh, they're not that bad, sir, at least it's light out now and the dark things that have been prowling around out there have gone."

Looking around, Yusuke saw that the dirt of the path was marked with hundreds of prints from what looked like many kinds of paws, claws, and strange footprints. All those things had been that near.

He shivered. It was not a thought that was comforting, in fact, it gave him the heebie-jeebies. "Those marks… were they really…"

"Yes sir," Kear nodded. "Thallen sent all kinds of dark things to make horrible noises all night. Lucky, sir, you were asleep. But there was no need to worry, the fire protected us."

"How?" he asked simply.

"Never run out of questions, do you, sir? Well, it protected us because of a little trick I did, but I can't tell you much more." shrugging he fiddled with his cloak, straitening it so he wouldn't have to look at Yusuke directly.

Another question occurred to Yusuke. "By the way, why that cloak? You never take that thing off, it must get hot."

"When I made this avatar, I was in something of a hurry," Kear pulled up his cloak to what would have been his elbow except…there wasn't anything there. He had a hand up to the wrist, but after that it was simply air, the hand appeared to float. "the cloak is an easier shape to make."

"Put your sleeve back down, that's really creepy."

"Well you asked, sir," Kear replied somewhat testily. He picked up his lantern. "now that it's light, we should get going, follow me, sir."

"Alright," nodded Yusuke and followed Kear down the path and into the vastness of the Grim Forest.

**--------------------------------------------**

It was a forest well named as it turned out. The Grim Forest was dark and foreboding enough to make Yusuke very uncomfortable. The greenery that flanked the road was so thick that even if he looked between the individual vines and trees he couldn't see more than a few feet away.

One the other hand, Kear seemed to be perfectly at ease, strolling along the path, though his eyes flicked from side to side more often than for someone who was relaxed.

Maybe _he_ was a country person, but Yusuke was a city boy and didn't like the Forest at all because there was something about it that set his nerves on edge. He spent the whole time with his hand on the sword hilt, jumping at every strange birdcall and peering at everything off the path suspiciously.

There was little light that fought its way through the leaves of the foliage to fall on the path to illuminate their way, so they were picking their ways through patches of shadow and deeper shadow.

"I wish this wasn't so thick," Yusuke whispered, unconsciously keeping his voice down, as he gestured at the Forest.

Kear fell back so that they were walking side by side. "What's making me nervous, sir, is that we haven't been attacked by bandits at all lately. We'd hear them coming through all that brush and vine, but if there were on the path…we might never know, sir, until we were right on them."

"And here I thought I was just being paranoid." muttered Yusuke.

"Remember, sir, just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

"Great, you're comforting me to no…what was that?" Yusuke snapped around to peer off the path. The noises went on, branches cracking, greenery being torn away, it sounded all too much like someone blundering through the Forest.

"Two people," said Kear his head cocked to one side, listening. "one chasing the other I think, sir."

"Good guys or bad guys, can you sense?" the crashing sounds were getting closer and he tensed, starting to draw his sword.

Kear held up his hand stopping him. "Sir, I think it's a ally being chased by an enemy. But, sir, this makes no sense, it's too soon for the next person."

"But there's a lose piece of Thallen around, and," Yusuke's eyes narrowed and he muttered. "and there's Kurama. It must be Youko Kurama out there. I've got to get to him, he'll need help." he started toward the continuing noises of running.

But before he could go more than a few steps Kear grabbed him by the shoulders. "No, sir, you can't go off the path! If you do the foliage will tear you to shreds!" Yusuke continued to struggle but the guide held him in a firm grasp. "It's the Grim Forest, sir, the very trees are evil! The path is protected, but once you get off it there'll be no going back!"

He stopped fighting him but was still angry. "What do you expect me to do?! While one of my friends is in trouble you want me to just sit around?!"

"No sir," Kear kept his hands on his shoulders and kept his eyes on his. "I expect you to do what you have to and save the person who's waiting for you. A time will come later for you help this person, sir, but for now, it's out of your hands. Accept it, sir."

For one long moment Yusuke glared at him. He wanted to push by him, he wanted to charge into the undergrowth, he wanted to save Kurama, he wanted to, but he knew that the guide was there to help him. If he said not now, then it now wasn't the time.

"Okay," he said finally taking a deep breath. "okay, I won't do anything dumb. Let's get moving."

They took off down the path at a headlong dash with Yusuke in the lead.

For a long while they ran steadily, trying to cover as much distance as possible in the least amount of time. The trees flashed by in parallel lines of gray and darker gray and the foliage rustled with the speed of their passing. For a long time, there was only them and the running, time went by unnoticed.

It was Kear who screeched to a halt first, digging his heels in to stop himself.

"What is it?" Yusuke snapped, impatiently.

"Trouble ahead, sir." said Kear simply.

"You gonna hide in your lantern?"

Kear shook his head. "Not until later, sir,"

"How far ahead is the trouble?"

"Around the corner, we should go carefully from now on, sir. Better unsheathe your sword."

With a nod Yusuke took the sword out and held it at the ready. "Stay right behind me and make sure no one sneaks up on us."

"Yessir. Ready to go?"

"Yep," together they crept forward, senses straining to detect anything around the corner. Slowly they crept around it.

Only because Yusuke was completely ready for an attack was he able to get his sword up in time to not become a member of the headless. The two blades cracked together and struck sparks off each other, illuminating the face of the attacker.

The swordsman leaned his weight on their crossed swords and leapt backwards in the air, as if he weighed nothing at all.

Both this move and the brief glimpse of the face identified the attacker. "Hiei!" Yusuke yelled into the darkness that had swallowed the small demon again. "Hey! Hiei, what the hell are you doing?!"

The sword in his hands flared blue and it's control reached down his arms. It jerked his arms up and turned him in one fluid movement so that he blocked the blow coming from behind him. After landing Hiei narrowed his eyes at him.

"Get away from here."

"What the hell are you talking about?" he shouted at him.

"Get away from the tower!" Hiei hissed at him across their crossed blades. "Leave and _don't_ come back!"

"Your not making any sense!" as his arms kept moving to block Hiei, his mouth was free to yell at him. A horrible thought came to his mind, what if he was too late again? Had Thallen gotten to Hiei first, like he did with Kurama?

"His mind isn't snapped, sir, I can tell," Kear yelled at him. "he's sane, but he just doesn't know it's you, yet!"

"I could tell _that_!" shouted Yusuke back at him, his body moving to doge Hiei, who appeared out of the shadows again. He lurched to the other side to avoid him when he reversed his swing, falling to the ground and rolling back to his feet. "Hiei, you're being an idiot! Stop trying to kill me again, we're on the same side now, _remember_?"

But Hiei didn't appear to even hear him, though he did stop, but only to gather his feet under him. Then he disappeared into a black blur that Yusuke had learned to hate. Usually he ended up with pain after Hiei became a black blur.

But that was before he'd started training with that old Bat Genkai, and also before the Dark Tournament. Now he was able to just about to keep track of Hiei, though it was a close thing. He poured more of his power into the still glowing sword, letting it strike back for the first time not block.

Yusuke, through the sword, swung hard and fast, catching Hiei's blade right above the hilt and shearing right through the thinner sword. The sword carried the blow, but at the last second Yusuke exerted his own control and was able to turn the weapon so the flat of the blade slammed into Hiei's face. There was a nasty sounding snap that Yusuke knew from a hundred street fights, the sound of a nose breaking.

Staggering back Hiei grabbed his nose with one hand, throwing the useless shorn off hilt of his sword. He clenched the free hand and fire flared around it.

By now, that part of the Forest was well lit between Hiei's fire and Yusuke's sword. Hiei started to lunge and stopped in the middle of the movement.

He appeared to look at him for the first time. "…Detective?"

Yusuke lowered his sword. "Well it's about time, why were you trying to kill me a few seconds ago?"

"I couldn't tell it was you."

"Jeez, I would hope so," By now Yusuke had had a chance to look around and see some of the surroundings. Now that he was around the corner he could see the path had spilt and down the left trail it opened up onto a clearing. That was normal, but what leaped out at him was the tower that was planted squarely in the middle of the clearing. It was huge, built of gray stone, and didn't have any door he could see. This must have been the tower Hiei was talking about.

"What's so important about this tower? Why'd you not want anyone to get to it?" Yusuke asked.

"It's easier to show you, come here Detective," Hiei waved at him to follow, then turned down the left path, toward the tower.

This was fairly typical Hiei behavior, which put Yusuke at ease more than anything else. If Hiei was bad tempered, all was probably right in the world.

It was weird to think that Hiei was the most normal person that he'd met today.

The small demon stopped at the base of the tower and pointed upwards, his noise appeared to have magically healed itself, it was no longer bleeding or crooked. "There," he said simply.

Yusuke tilted his head back, pretty far, because the tower was pretty high, and looked hard. Way up at the top of the tower, he could see that there was a window, a small narrow thing with bars. And though it was very far away, he could make out two hands clutching the bars and a little of the person who was up there. Sea green hair spilled from the window, trailing down like pale vines.

"Yukina?" he asked.

Hiei nodded. "The tower doesn't burn, doesn't melt, doesn't even chip, no matter what I do, she won't even respond when I call out to her,"

"Really, huh," Yusuke cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled "Hey up there, Yukina! Wave if you can hear me!"

There was no response from above, the hands didn't move at all.

"That sucks, is there no door or anything?"

"If there was, do you think I'd still be down there? And the stone of the tower is too smooth to climb up more than a few feet," Hiei shrugged with his hands dug deep in his pockets. "I was trying to find another way when you showed up,"

"Got it, and you thought I was Thallen. The evil guy that stuck you all here." Yusuke added at Hiei's blank look.

"Oh him, yes, I didn't think he'd be back here, until you came, that is."

"But the real problem is getting up that tower, I wonder if I can Spirit Gun it over, or maybe the Shotgun will work,"

"Umm…excuse me…" Kear had followed them so quietly neither had noticed him and was looking up at the tower. "I don't think it'll crumble, sir, it feels like it's made specifically to resist attacks. But, sir, I do think that there's something that I can do,"

Hiei eyed him skeptically, he'd not noticed him before this and that annoyed him, Yusuke could tell. "And this is…?"

"This little guy is my guide, Kear," Yusuke said. "who should have spoken up before this if he had something helpful to say."

"Sorry, sir. But I was serious about possibly being able to help." he passed his lantern nervously from hand to hand.

"Keep going," Yusuke encouraged.

"Well, I'm no kitsune, sir, but I have a… bit of knack with plants. Perhaps I might be able to grow something that could help you get up," he shrugged. "a vine ladder might be the best I can manage in this avatar, would that do, sir?"

"Yeah, that'll be great. A ladder will make this a hell of a lot easier, thanks Kear. And by the way, why haven't you hidden yet?"

"I haven't seen or sensed hide nor hair of Thallen yet, so I might as well stick around, and if I'm going to be here, I'm supposed to be useful to you, sir."

"This is all very touching," Hiei interrupted "but could we get on with it?"

Kear turned to Yusuke. "Sir, permission?"

"Sure, the sooner the better,"

With a nod Kear set his lantern on the ground and advanced to put his hands on the tower. "Alright, watch this," his fingers tensed on the stone, and there was a great groaning, shifting noise. Yusuke turned to look over his shoulder so fast that he almost got whiplash.

In the edges of the Grim Forest, vines were stirring, unwinding themselves from each other, and flowing like great sinuous snakes. Thousands at a time they came pouring over the ground and between their feet to the tower. Being lighter Hiei was knocked off balance and would have fallen had Yusuke not grabbed him by the arm. It was a mark of how distracted Hiei was that he didn't shake him off immediately.

Together they watched the vines flow toward the tower, then begin to wrap around it, digging into the stone for a grip. Kear relaxed his fingers and bowed his head in concentration. After that the vines on the tower twined in a more visible pattern, around and around the tower until the loops that stuck out were a reasonable distance from each other.  
The last vine settled itself in place with a creak and Kear lifted his head. "Will that do, sir?" he asked, his voice weary.

Yusuke inspected the guide's work. It looked like it would hold and not go sliding off if they tried to put weight on it, and the vines were wooly enough to give an extra bit of traction. "Yep, that'll do. Sit down and get your breath, we'll climb."

With a nod Kear backed off and tiredly took a seat on the grass.

Yusuke only noticed he was still holding Hiei's arm when the small demon pulled it out of the grasp to stand, inspecting the vines closely.

"Do you want to go up first?" Yusuke asked him.

"No, you,"

He shrugged. "Suit yourself," and he took the sword out, putting it in a back belt loop so it hung at his back, that way it wouldn't get in his way when he started to climb. "Ready?" he asked Hiei who glowered and motioned for him to get on with it.

Taking a deep breath, Yusuke grabbed a low loop of vine and stepped up onto a high one. Then he reached up and snagged a higher vine, swinging his feet up to the one he'd just been holding. The sword bumped uncomfortably against his thighs despite the fact that he'd moved it, though below him Hiei wasn't appearing to have too much trouble.

It a long way up to the tower top and by the time Yusuke was near it his shoulders ached from the pain of pulling himself up and his knees and back were throwing in their own protests.

But just as he was reached up for the window ledge he felt a jolt to his head.

_They'd been stupid from the start, way too arrogant, all the easily dealt with missions making them careless on this one. Thallen was much smarter then any of them had given him credit for, he'd not only been ready for them, but had a trap ready._

_And what with having left Koenma's office so quickly, none of them had been completely sure of the extent of Thallen's mind hacking powers, not even Hiei, who was somewhat of an expert in the area. _

The blast had hit them all full on in the face, before any of them could do so much as throw up some sort of shield or barrier. Yusuke had seen a flash of light go up in front of him, but there was no such luck for his team.

_They were thrown like rag dolls, none landing well, skidding across the ground. And when his team had stopped moving, none of them had gotten up._

_Then an angel had appeared…or so she had claimed to be…_

The jolt passed and Yusuke shook his head to clear it. As he did so several things fell into place, of course, it helped that he now had the whole story.

He frowned, his hand still in midair between the windowsill and the vine, actually brushing one of the strands of Yukina's hair that hung down.

"What is it?" demanded Hiei.

"Umm, Hiei…" he began.

"_What_?" the tone Hiei spoke in was icy, which hinted that his hands might be getting sore and that he was less than thrilled with hanging there.

"Hiei, I just remembered you guys getting blasted here. And I don't think Yukina was with us. If she wasn't with us then, how could she be here…"

A hand reached down from the window and pushed him so hard his one hand that had been gripping a vine lost its hold and he plummeted straight down.

Hiei grunted in pain when Yusuke hit him on the way down and, his grip loosened, the small demon fell also.

As he plummeted downward, Yusuke saw clearly up into the window and saw plainly who really stood there.

It was as if someone had made a very bad copy of Yukina, without knowing what she looked like very well. This Yukina didn't have the kindness in her eyes or the gentleness in her face that the real one did. Her hair was the wrong shade, her eyes not pink but a clear blue, and there were tiny horns at the corners of her forehead.

A trap.

Now Yusuke got it, of course, it was too late to do anything about it. He was falling too fast. Then the window was out of view and he grabbed at air to stop his fall, but there was no handhold.

Below him, Yusuke heard a sickening crunch with he supposed was Hiei impacting with the ground.

A far off lesson, pounded into his head by Kayko, came back to him at that moment. Physics said that he and Hiei should have hit the ground at around the same time, but this place appeared to disregard things like that, because Hiei had fallen a lot faster.

Yusuke turned in the air to look down and his eyes went wide.

Not far below Kear was staring in shock at were Hiei had landed. He was just rising when something made him glance up. He had just an instant to scream and throw his arms over his head in a futile gesture as Yusuke fell directly on, and in, to him.

**--------------------------------------------**

He could hear a voice speaking a tone of worry in their, no her voice. "Master Genkai, he's stopped crying out, but I think he's waking up!"

"What?" he could hear hurried footsteps. "Are you sure?" someone knelt by him and he could tell it was Genkai from the gravely voice.

"Master Genkai," said the other person, Yukina from her voice. "that isn't right, he isn't done, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Kurama are not back yet. How can Yusuke wake if he hasn't finished?" her voice shook. "Unless…unless he failed…?"

"Something must have gone wrong, he must have been injured enough to shake his mind, check him for injuries, Yukina."

A cool hand was laid on his forehead. "Yes, it's bad, broken bones and internal injuries, oh and there's a great deep cut on the back of his leg. As if he fell on something sharp…"

"Well, he might have on the other end, who knows? Heal him, would you? …Boy? Hey, dimwit, don't wake up. You're not done yet, go back, moron."

"_Sir…?" a voice called out. "Sir, can you here me? Sir…?" Kear was there, extending his hand toward him. "Take my hand, sir…come on…"_

"Go back, dimwit,"

_He backed away from Kear. "What if I don't want to?"_

"Stupid boy, you have a mission to do, don't be an idiot."

_"Take my hand…" Kear extended his small hand out further, reaching, stretching._

"Go back, dumbass," snapped Genkai. "there are people counting on you,"

_Now Kear was stretched out as far as he could, still with his hand extended. "Take it…come, sir, take it…"_

" _You know, I'd rather not go back there," he said. "why should I, isn't it dangerous as hell there?"_

"Finish what you've started. If you don't you're as good as leaving the rest of your team to die. I thought you were better than that, dimwit."

_"Take my hand…there's not much time…take it or you can't get back! Yusuke, _take my hand_!"_

_He reached out and placed his hand in the guide's, it was solid and warm. Yusuke felt Kear's fingers tighten around him as he _Pulled_…_

**--------------------------------------------**

And he opened his eyes to see the tower looming over him. Closer by, Kear's round worried face bent over him. He appeared to be laying down.

"You…" he said slowly, as his brain reassembled things. "Hey… you called me by my name back there, I think that's the first time you ever did that."

A relived smile flitted across Kear's face. "I was desperate and you weren't listening, sir. You've been out for two minutes."

Something occurred to him. "Where's Hiei and more importantly, where's the bad guy? You know, Thallen, or whatever form he's in."

"Sir, the short dark fellow is still laying over there, he was probably stunned when you hit him. I don't know how badly he was hurt falling. They were probably dealing with it on the other side. And Thallen, well, sir, he disappeared after he pushed you. I think he's still around here somewhere, but I can't tell exactly were."

Yusuke levered himself up some and saw that Hiei was laying not far from him in a dark heap. He couldn't see his face from they way he was laying, but he seemed to be breathing, which was a good sign.

"Well, I'm back, how'd you manage that?"

"If you hadn't landed on, well _in_ really, me, sir, I wouldn't have had the link into you that I needed to reach back to the real world. We were lucky that…that…" the color drained from Kear's face, he became even more transparent. As Yusuke watched his eyes went from green to blue and he started to scrabble backwards. He'd been looking over Yusuke at the time and Yusuke did so just as Kear found his lantern, wrenched open the door and disappeared inside so that a flame lit it again, with a whimper of fear.

Emerging from the forest edge was the not-Yukina from the tower, which was an answer to what Kear he been so terrified of. Yusuke climbed to his feet, feeling far off pain in his leg, probably a souvenir of his fall off the tower onto the sword.

"Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi," said the not-Yukina, her voice not Yukina's but a man's, the one Yusuke had come to recognize as Thallen's. "how did you manage to get here? I almost had this one in my grasp, all I needed to do was descend from the tower and his mind was mine. But then you came. You are not cooperating with my plans, Detective, and I do not like you."

"Too bad," he shrugged. "you're trying to kill my friends, I don't like you either."

"Not kill, I have no need for a dead slave. I cannot make the dead into an army, I am no necromancer. But powerful humans and demons whose minds I have seized hold of, that is a different matter." a nasty smile crossed the non-Yukina's face making the demon look less like her then ever. "The body can move even if the mind is snapped. So, no, technically I am not going to kill your allies."

"You know," Yusuke said. "it's really disturbing to hear your voice coming out of _that_ body. I know you like appearing in different forms all the time, but this one's freaking me out." with one hand he was reaching back behind him for the sword that was still tucked into his jeans loop in the back. It had cut into his leg when he fell off the tower, probably badly but thanks to Yukina, it didn't hurt so much.

Thallen laughed deeply and began to change. The non-Yukina's face warped and he grew until he was as Yusuke had first seen him, the handsome blond haired man that had tried to kill Botan. "Better?"

"Yeah, at least your voice matches your body now." His hand had found the sword and he was drawing it out, slowly, inch by inch so Thallen wouldn't notice at once.

"I will offer you the same choice I did, the first time with the girl. Leave now, go back to the real world, and I won't kill you were you stand."

"Really?" his tone was arrogant, but he was mostly just buying time, buying time to get the sword out.

"I can be merciful, I do not need you to create my army, your team will be enough. Perhaps your guide too, he might be useful. Leave now and you can go free. Consider it, Detective."

Yusuke, with his hand firmly around the sword-hilt, let his control over his body go. "Nice deal," he said as the sword glowed blue. "but I'm gonna have to say no." with reflexes and speed the sword gave him, he yanked it out and buried it up to the hilt in Thallen's chest.

He expected the demon to scream or strike at him, but Thallen simply smiled at him, then changed again. Once more he wore the form of the non-Yukina on whose face the smirk did not look right. "Revenge… is sweet…" breathed Thallen, then fragmented into nothing.

There was a growl of anger and Hiei was on his feet. "You killed her!" he hissed. "You _killed_ her!"

Yusuke felt a sinking feeling in his stomach when he realized that from the angle that Hiei had been at, all he had seen was him stabbing who Hiei thought was Yukina. That had been the final plan of that part of Thallen, revenge would be sweet for the demon if Yusuke didn't manage to set Hiei straight, and fast.

"Wait Hiei," he held his hands up, one still holding the sword. "you've got it all wrong. That wasn't Yukina, it just looked like her. Really, seriously, it wasn't." but it sounded false, even to him.

"She was my… she was my _kin_, Detective," Hiei's eyes were flashing with fury. "my only real family," dark flames licked around Hiei's arm, burning away the bandages that covered it. "and… you …._killed_ …her."

"No, wait, it's not what it look like,"

"I don't care!" the flames flared higher than Hiei already forming the shape of a dragon. "I don't _care_! I saw _you_ kill Yukina, my _sister_…and for that, I _will_ kill you too." his rage was palpable, hotter than the flames.

Yusuke was sure at that moment, he was about to die and die horribly.

But what made him move, what made him do what he did wasn't courage, it wasn't even planned, but came from a gut instinct that said to him "This is _Hiei_, you know him, he won't kill you, you've earned his respect and his loyalty a thousand times over. He _won't_ kill you. Not because it would be back-stabbing, but because it would go against his code of honor and that's the only thing he never goes against, no matter how complicated it is."

So Yusuke took one step forward, then another, then another, until he was close enough to grab Hiei by the shoulders. The heat nearly peeled the skin off his hands but he didn't let go and didn't give Hiei time to shake him off. Instead Yusuke shook him and shook him until Hiei's teeth rattled. "I didn't do it," he said, firmly, looking Hiei in the eye.

"But-"

He overrode him. "Yukina wasn't at the fight, how could she be here in the first place? Thallen was trying to get into your head, and Yukina was the easiest way."

There was still mistrust in Hiei's face. "I saw-"

"No," Yusuke interrupted him again. "you saw Thallen in her form."

"But-"

"Why would I kill Yukina? I wouldn't, I like her, she heals me, remember? Think about it for a second, you're not an idiot, Hiei."

For a moment the flames burned hotter than ever, Yusuke was sure his hands were a wreak by now. Hiei glared at him for a long second, then the fire went out.

"I believe you," he said. "now don't touch me."

Yusuke grinned. "That's the Hiei I know," he backed off. "you got your head back in place?"

Hiei nodded, then looked around. "And none of this is real?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure by now,"

"Good." said Hiei. "then there's no point in me being here." he became transparent.

"See you on the other side." Yusuke said in a creepy voice, waggling his hands in the air.

"Stupid Detective," snorted Hiei, becoming more see through by the moment, as the others had. He glared at Yusuke, then vanished.

Again the scenery blurred and he stood back on the path at the crossroads he'd been at before.

With a toe he prodded the lantern that was sitting on the path. "Come out, I've only got two more to go."

The door on the lantern swung open and the flame went out, Kear bent to pick his lantern up. "Wait up, sir!" he called after Yusuke, who had continued down the path into the Grim Forest, the sword casually over his shoulder.

"Hurry up, then." Yusuke yelled back, not slowing his pace.

Before he did though, Kear reached into his cloak and drew out the silver pocket-watch. Flipping it open he commented "As sir said, two more to go, and he might actually mange to beat Thallen. I hate to say it, but I had my doubts before. Now…" he glanced at the retreating figure of Yusuke. "now if I was a betting man, I would bet quite a lot on sir. And I almost never bet."

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**TBC**

**Please review.**


	5. Wherein There Are Axes

**Tales of Rescuing **

Dane Soar

Here we are back to Kurama in the story, he's really been having a bad day today. Again thanks to Twiddle-Dumb for the editing.

**---------------------------**

Chapter 4** Wherein There Are Axes And Yusuke Says "Screw the Questions" (Which Means** **There Aren't Many More Answers Needed)**

**---------------------------**

_(Little Red Riding Hood)_

_(Hey! Don't laugh, it works out.)_

"Okay Kear," said Yusuke as he walked. "run me through what happened back there,"

"Well right after you fell into me, which was after you fell off the tower, sir, the amount of injuries you got from the fall and from landing on the sword made your mind try to go back to your body. Luckily since you fell in me, sir--"

"Oh yeah, uh, sorry about that."

Kear shrugged. "Don't mention it, all you did was damage my avatar, Madam Yukina on the other end is keeping the injures down. Anyway, sir, it was a good thing you did because that gave me a link into you so I could try to call you back here again. It was a very near thing, sir," he nodded so emphatically that he tripped on the trailing edge of his cloak and fell over with a squeak and practically fell through Yusuke.

"Be careful there," he said vaguely as he held up his hands and inspected them. He'd put them on Hiei's burning shoulders but now they weren't even sore. "so it's Yukina's work that's letting me be able to go on. She's healing my injuries on the other side?"

"Uh-huh, sir, Madam Yukina does wonderful work, she's quite skilled,"

"Yeah, I guess she does," Yusuke said absentmindedly. "are you sure that your fine? I mean, I fell in you, that must have done something."

Kear appeared reluctant, then sighed. "It's not important, but, well," he reached over and holding the lantern on a thumb pulled his cloak back from his other arm. There was nothing there.

"I thought you had a hand," Yusuke remarked and as he walked, he thought back. Yes, he remembered it clearly, before Kear had pulled back his cloak to reveal that his hand was unsupported, but there, had been a hand there.

"I did, sir, but when you fell on me…well you were wearing the sword and Aleara and I made it specifically to hurt Thallen. It damaged my avatar."

"You mean I cut off your hand?" said Yusuke surprised. "Jeez, I didn't mean to do that. Sorry."

"Oh," he flapped his remaining hand, the lantern swinging from it. "it's okay, sir, it's only here that you cut it off. Madam Yukina was swift enough to again save the day."

"Good to know. But speaking of saving the day, I still have at least two people to rescue, right?"

Glancing around Kear frowned. "Yessir, but I think the person that was running around in the forest might be nearby, I keep thinking I hear crashing but it's pretty far away or I would have said something about it before, sir."

"Kurama's nearby?" Yusuke glared at the thick foliage on the path sides that made it impossible to see very far into the Grim Forest. "You said before that the path's protected but will the trees still attack me?"

"Now your thinking, sir. But sadly, yes, wait and see if we can find a gap before we do anything. Hopefully either I can keep the trees at bay or the clearing might be protected. Who knows, we could get lucky."

"I like this "we" idea," said Yusuke with a grin. "does this mean you plan to start helping and not hiding every time things get nasty?"

"Of course not! I value my skin quite highly, sir," he shivered. "and Thallen makes me terrified."

"Chicken," Yusuke commented, blandly.

"I have every reason to be, sir!" Kear's eyes grew cold and from blue to green. "Thallen just needs to touch me to get the link into my mind he needs. Then he can wipe my mind as clean as a slate, and do what he wants with my body. I would be his personal puppet. As I said before, and I have too much to loose."

"Huh, I would be chicken too."

"Exactly, sir."

He picked up his pace and Kear had to trot to keep up with them. "I hate not knowing what's going on ahead."

"Sir, that crashing noise I heard, before, it's passed us and…" Kear cocked his head to the side, closing his eyes so he could hear better. "it's up ahead, I think there's a clearing off the path again. Not far ahead and it sounds like they've stopped there."

Yusuke speed his pace up more, if there was a chase going on the only reason both chasers would have stopped was if someone had been caught. "This could be bad," he muttered to himself, putting his hand on the sword. "Kear, we're going to run. Keep up or hide."

"Yessir!"  
The Spirit Detective broke into the steady swift lope that he used when he needed to cover a lot of ground and wanted to be able to do more than gasp for breath when he got there. Behind him, Kear was steadily loosing ground, unable to keep up with his longer legs, but the guide didn't say a word.

Time had been of an essence last time Kurama was in danger and Yusuke had been too late, too slow.

He wouldn't be this time around.

Behind him, Kear opened the door on his lantern on the run, disappearing into it. The lantern rolled a few feet on before stopping. It was left in the dust as Yusuke ran on.

**--------------------------------------------**

About a ten-minute sprint down the path he found the gap in the trees he had needed.

It was small, only about a foot gap between two trees and it led onto a clearing. He would have disregarded it, but for what he saw in it.

Two figures, one upright, one fallen down.

In a flash Yusuke forced himself between the tree-trunks and into the clearing, reaching down for the sword.

On the ground was a young man dressed in white, who had thrown one hand over his head in a last ditch effort to protect himself from the other, the one who had an ax raised over his head to strike the man in white.

The ax man's face turned up in a malicious smile and he brought the ax down. The other cried out, the ax man raised his weapon over his head again.

"Hey!" Yusuke yelled, and the ax man turned. That was long enough.

The one in white rolled forward, slamming his foot into the ax man's shins. He hissed in pain, dropping his ax, staggering back. The ax man was tall with curly dark hair, blue eyes, and small horns at the corners of his forehead and was dressed in the dark leathers of a huntsman.

And the man in white was Kurama, Youko Kurama, who had taken the opportunity to back away from the huntsman, his hand to the wound in his side.

"Thallen." said Yusuke, it was a statement more than a question. "Long time, no see."

"Hardly," spat the huntsman Thallen, whose features shifted and become the original blond haired version that Yusuke now realized was his real form. But the change had distracted Yusuke and he didn't have the sword out when Thallen made his move.

Reaching back, Thallen snagged his ax from the ground and backed up more. Now he was securely in-between Yusuke and Youko, wielding his weapon.

"You're in time this time around," remarked Thallen. "before you were so slow that I had time to do what I wished well before you arrived."

Yusuke's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well, this time I ran faster." Now he had drawn the sword and was holding it up, ready to surrender control to whatever it was that made him able to fight with it.

"I will have this mind. You have taken too many of your team from my grasp and you will not take this one. You may have gained one half of this mind, but I will have the rest, that will be enough. This one is mine."

Looking exhausted from the time spent running for his life, Youko carefully cleared his throat. Both sets of eyes, one brown and one clear blue, focused on him. "In point of fact," he said quietly, ears drooping in weariness, his eyes glazed with fatigue, and still on the ground. "I want to remind both of you that I am still here. Please don't speak as if I am not, it's rather demeaning."

A very obnoxious answer for someone who was laying there bleeding.

Both Yusuke and Thallen glared at him.

"Bastard," said Yusuke eventually. "shut up and let me kill this guy so you can leave."

"And were have you been for all that time were I have been running around this entire forest? It has been hours since I arrived."

"Which you?" asked Yusuke lowering his sword a bit. It appeared that more of Kurama was here than in his other form, this was much more like the kitsune he knew.

Thallen took the moment he was distracted to strike with his ax. But Yusuke was getting good at letting the sword take over his body by now and was able to quickly let the blade turned blue so that it got his blade got up in time to block the ax.

The weapons crashed together and actually drew sparks from each other. They both backed off, eyeing each other warily. With the sword puppeting his movements, Yusuke fainted forward with the sword, testing the demon's guard but Thallen deflected the swipes easily with the ax.

He gritted his teeth and swung in earnest, Thallen didn't expect the real blow and had to dodge out of the way. Once the demon got his balance back he responded in kind, Yusuke was able to block the strike with the sword, the blade chipped a splinter off the ax handle, pushing on their weapons once they were locked to throw Thallen off balance. His blade caught on the ax under its blade, lodging in the wood once it dug in. Yanking his ax back Thallen attempted to dislodge it but it was in too deep.

He frowned, yanking harder as Yusuke dug his front foot in to keep from being pulled forward. It was within that moment, when both were focused completely on the battle that Youko played his hand.

Before he had been only observing the battle with great interest, waiting for the right moment to move. Now he did so.

A vine whipped out of the nearby foliage of the clearing and wrapped itself around Thallen's throat, jerking him back forcibly. Hauling him to the glen edge the vine cut into the demon's neck and was soon joined by the other plants that twined themselves in, enough that he was lashed securely there.

The demon made a guttural groan and slumped in his newfound bonds. His face was turning a disturbingly blue like color.

"Couldn't you have done that a little sooner?" said Yusuke in frustration, lowering the sword and kicking the ax through the grass so it was a little farther away from him. "It'd be a nice if I could rescue one of you guys without having to fight for my life." Now that Yusuke wasn't actually in combat the sword had withdrawn it's influence and stopped glowing.

"A little sooner?" repeated Youko. "That was as soon as I could have managed, Yusuke, I am bleeding quite steadily, as I might remind you."

He had forgotten that Kurama had been running around all that time he'd been trying to free Hiei and catch up to him.

"Sorry, it took me forever to get here." he nudged the ax a little farther away from him out of shear nerves, then put the sword back through the loop in his jeans. He probably wouldn't need it now that Kurama had dealt with Thallen. "I got pretty held up getting Hiei out of a nasty situation. The little sucker kept trying to take my head off."

Kurama chuckled. "That would be Hiei." his hand was still to his side were he was oozing blood on a fairly regular basis, as the other form of Kurama had been, but Youko was also bleeding down his side from a large shoulder cut and miscellaneous slices. A bruise flowered on his cheekbone, probably a souvenir from the run into the woods.

At once Yusuke felt bad, Youko was a bloody wreak in white robes, just because he had taken too long.

Pushing himself up on one hand, the one with the unwounded shoulder, the kitsune struggled ungainly to his feet, uncharacteristically clumsy. He glanced over at the tree line, were the bound Thallen was still hanging. "What do you plan to do with him?"

"The other bits of him I fought all vanished once I killed them. But most of them I stabbed. I guess this one's not dead yet."

"Would he be dead if the vines tore him limb from limb? I could even make them grow thorns." asked Youko, in an interested way as if he was rather considering doing it.

"I sense some bloodlust here, we a little frustrated?"

Youko raised a silvery eyebrow at him in a manner that suggested he would not use the term 'little' to describe it.

The little hairs on the back of Yusuke's neck stood up, Kurama was more than a little disconcerting when he was in this form, especially with that glint in his golden eyes.

"Don't rip him apart, it'd be all bloody," he said. "and it'll get all over the plants, won't it be bad for them? Green stuff's your specialty, not mine."

Youko was still looking at Thallen, but he didn't have that bloodthirsty look in his eyes anymore. "This world isn't real, as you probably know already, so I doubt a little more blood will matter one way or another. However, I am getting a strong Little Red Riding Hood impression here. I wonder what I am supposed to be in the story?"

"Considering you had a mad ax-wielding huntsman after you, I think you were supposed to be the Big Bad Wolf."

Youko blinked blankly at him. "Ah…I am not a wolf, _I_ am a fox."

Leering at him, Yusuke said. "My, what big ears you have, grandmother," he quoted. "my mom read this story to me once."

"All the better to hear you with, my dear," quoted Kurama back. "so did mine."

"My, what yellow eyes you have, grandmother."

"Yusuke…" Youko sighed then humored him. "all the better to see you with, my dear."

"And my, what sharp teeth you have, Grannie."

"Keep going and I will bite you, Yusuke, with these sharp teeth of mine, because they're all the better to eat you with. I always thought it wasn't very bright of that little girl to point that out. It seemed like she was almost asking to be eaten."

"Yeah, makes you look at the story in a whole different light. Suicidal Riding Hood. Nice."

Okay, look, no more wasting time, back to the real world with you," Yusuke flapped a hand. "I think things are under control here. I'll figure out something to do with our buddy over there in the vines."

Youko nodded and turned his face to what bits of the sky that could been seen through the tree-branches as Botan had. He began to fade.

With a roar Thallen tore himself free from the vines and snatched up his ax from the ground. Before either of them could do anything, Thallen buried the ax-blade deep into Youko's back.

The kitsune's eyes went wide and he vanished, along with the ax.

For a brief second, Thallen flashed a grin with fangs in it, then his features shifted, elongated, along with the demon's entire body. He shifted into a small form, a small form with a red hood, a young girl, who winked at him, before running into the trees.

She had had blue eyes still and little horns at the corners of her forehead.

"Well, shit," remarked the, now alone, Yusuke. "that's bad." and went off to the path to find his guide.

**--------------------------------------------**

Shaking the lantern back and forth vigorously Yusuke walked and talked. "Wakey, wakey, in there. Get out here."

The door on the lantern opened and the next minute a rather dizzy looking Kear appeared, staggering a few steps on the path. "Please don't shake it around, sir. To me it's like being a bead in a rattle." He steadied himself.

"Oh, well, sorry about that. But I need to know, do you have contact with the real world?" he asked him.

Kear nodded, reaching under his cloak. "Why do you need to know? What happened?"

"While you were playing hide and seek in that lantern, Thallen sunk an ax between Kurama's shoulder blades. It vanished when he vanished, I'd like to think it wasn't because he was dead."

"Probably, not, sir," said Kear, though he didn't look sure. "remember when you fell off the tower, sir? Well, the pain of the injuries snapped you back to the real world, the same principle probably applied to Kurama. I can check if you want to peace of mind, though, sir."

"Do that, would you?"

"Sure, sir." he brought out the small sliver pocket watch that Yusuke had seen him look at a few times before. But before he opened it, he murmured over it, holding it so close his breath misted the metal. When he looked into it he spoke. "Mater Genkai?"

From the depths of the watch, much to Yusuke's surprise, came Genkai's voice. "Yes, Master Kear?"

"I have a request from your student, Kurama has fully returned, but he was hurt badly before he did so. How is he on your end, Mater Genkai?"

Yusuke craned his neck over Kear's head, not hard since the guide was short, looking at the watch. It was Genkai's face on it, instead of a regular watch face.

"He's well enough. Yukina dealt with the wounds, but she's getting tired. Try not to fall off something else or get stabbed again or anything like that. Especially you, Dimwit." she added to Yusuke, who she could see, presumably, over Kear's head. "get this done fast, before the wear and tear kills one of you. Get Kuwabara, kill Thallen, and leave."

"I hear you," said Yusuke. "thanks, Grandma."

"Smartass. And Master Kear, I don't have enough authority to order you around, but I'm warning you to be careful too."

"Of course, Master Genkai. Over and out."

"All right."

Kear shut the watch with a snap, stowing it away once again.

"How come she was polite to you?" Yusuke demanded. "Grandma's never nice to anyone, I can't believe she called you 'Master' Kear."

"I told you, sir, the titles I get called by are fairly interchangeable, that's just one of the many. Don't let it worry you." The guide's eyes changed from green-blue to the all blue they had been when he was talking by the fire.

"Yeah, right." muttered Yusuke. It was a disturbing thought that Genkai put Kear on the same level with herself.

"Anyway, sir," Kear scooped his lantern up in his one good hand. "we had better get going."

"Yeah, one left now. Oh and I want to know, when you were looking at your watch before and moaning on about how late it was, why were you doing that?"

"I was actually looking at the time in the real world, sir, there's only so long this kind of thing can be done safely."

"That makes sense now," Yusuke said. "glad most stuff does. It's nice to know what I'm doing. How long until it isn't safe anymore?"

"A little longer, sir."

"Good." nodded Yusuke, he moved off down the path, picking up his pace to a trot.

Kear, as was his habit by now, watched him go for a bit. Fishing back into his cloak, he brought the pocket-watch out again, checking the time on it. Doing some mental calculations he sighed. "Sorry, sir, I believe I lied. We passed the safe point quite a while ago.

"Better hurry a lot sir." he sighed and put the watch away, saying, as if for old times sake as he started after Yusuke: "No really, we're overdue, we're really in a stew! We're late! We're late! We're _late_!" he chuckled to himself. "I really did love that movie."

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**TBC**

**I see you. Review.**


	6. Wherein There Is A Dragon

**Tales of Rescuing **

Dane Soar

This is the second to last chapter, though it ends with a cliffhanger. Enjoy and review.

**---------------------------**

Chapter 5 **Wherein There Is A Dragon And Yusuke Doesn't Need To Ask Questions Anymore (Which Is About Time)**

**---------------------------**

(Sleeping Beauty)

"So why are we starting to walk so fast?" asked Yusuke as he trotted along.

Kear was going twice as fast as he was on account of shorter legs. "Well, we don't want to be late now, do we, sir?"

"No, I guess not," the sword bounced on his hip, but he didn't notice now, he'd gotten so used to the weight being there. Yusuke looked up at the sky, which he could finally see, because they had followed the path out from under the thick branches of the Grim Forest at last. "You know," he looked back over his shoulder at the far off Grim Forest. "if I never see another tree-branch, I'll die a happy man."

"Oh, sir, you seemed to enjoy yourself so much there though," Kear too looked over his shoulder, he was able to see the several bandits that were slumped over that part of the path back under the trees. Yusuke had beaten them up soundly right after they had jumped him, within seconds the bandits were groaning in the dust. He barely had to break stride. "did you notice those bandits seemed weaker, even though there were more of them?"

"Yeah, is Thallen getting desperate?"

"Yessir. But that's a good sign, if he's desperate, then your getting close to winning. Generally, when you make your enemy nervous, it means you're headed in the right direction."

The land had changed from forest to rolling grassland, high hills and deep valleys that made it hard to see very far ahead. Increasing his pace to a jog to crest a hilltop, Yusuke asked Kear. "How close is Kuwabara? And can you sense Thallen, yet?"

"No, not nearby immediately, but up ahead somewhere, maybe over the next hill, sir." He was starting to get left behind by the faster pace, but simply raised his voice so Yusuke could still hear him.

"Good, tell me when you get a clear lead. It's important."

**--------------------------------------------**

Stopping at the top of a hill Kear made a strangled noise. "…aggg…"

And he didn't stick around much longer to do much more than yelp, then disappeared into his lantern so fast it rocked and fell over.

"That bad, huh?" muttered Yusuke prodding the lantern with his toe. He drew the sword, then as a second thought he picked up the lantern and advanced with it in one hand and the blade the other. Even if Kear was a hopeless chicken, maybe he could still be of some help.

But up over the top of the hill was a sight that surprised Yusuke so much he almost dropped everything. It was a sight to stop hearts, to still breaths, so amazing and so awe-inspiring he could do nothing more than stand and stare for a few minutes.

Curled around a thicket of thorny branches was a creature Yusuke was sure that back in the real world couldn't possibly exist, his mind almost refused to accept it.

Demons, sure.

Ghosts, fine.

Blue-haired oar-riding Grim Reapers, no problem.

But _dragons_? No, way.

There is was though, right down there, an enormous, great blue dragon. Its head was the size of his Mom's entire apartment, it's eyes as big as he was, though they were closed.

The creature appeared to be asleep, its legs curled around the thicket, darker blue wings pulled in close to it's back, a ridge down its back of the same color.

Yusuke had absolutely no idea what to do about it. Then he saw the long horns at the edges of its forehead.

"No way. Ah, man, no way. A _dragon_? Thallen's a dragon this time? Jeez, if that's not cheating I don't know what is." he kept his voice down, the last thing he wanted to do at the moment was wake the thing. The shear enormity of what the challenge for the last enemy hit him. A dragon! How the hell was he supposed to beat a _dragon_?

Not by standing around in clear view gawping at the thing.

Crouching, he tried to stay low to the ground as he advanced forward. If this thing saw him, he'd need to move really fast. He was attempting to move without making a noise, but that was hard. Usually he didn't bother with a stealthy approach, charging in blindly was more his thing.

He didn't want to even set down the lantern out of the way, for fear it would make a noise that would wake the dragon, or Thallen or whatever it was.

Closer and closer Yusuke crept, holding his breath, the sword upraised. Now he was inches away from the dragon's head and froze in place.

What should he do? Stab Thallen? It would be like pricking a elephant with a thumbtack!

But what else was there to do, that first time he shot a Spirit Gun at Thallen, the demon had just deflected it and in this particular form, no doubt he could do it even more easily. That left stabbing it.

Slowly Yusuke leaned over and set the lantern down, holding his breath as he did so afraid that the dragon might hear. But Thallen didn't so much as flicker an eyelid.

He raised the sword over his head double-handed, he'd aim for the eye. The eyelid should be thin enough for him to stab through and if he was really lucky it might kill the dragon, the stab might go through the eye and into the brain.

Silently Yusuke hoped it would work.

With as much strength as he could muster, he brought the blade down toward the closed eye. When the sword was inches away from piercing it, the eye snapped open.

It was huge and blue, cat slit-ed and staring _right_ at him.

Suddenly Yusuke wished he had a lantern to hide in too.

The voice rumbled up from the depths of the dragon, low enough to make his teeth hurt. "Sssspirrrit Detective, Yusssuke Urrramessshi, you will not get passst me." The dragon jerked his head so that Yusuke's sword bounced off the hard ridge of scale between its eyes.

The dragon swung its head harder and Yusuke leapt, landing on his muzzle, pin-wheeling for balance. Both enormous blue eye stared at him with rage. "I will devourrr you, Yusssuke Urramessshi."

And Yusuke, who had faced down evil tournaments and several end of the world plots before, but nothing like this, said back something along the lines if: "Eep!" or maybe even: "Shit!" and clung tightly to a scale as the dragon rose flaring it's wings for balance. The lantern was knocked away to parts unknown as the dragon uncurled itself from around the thorn thicket and reared to its full height. It sat back on its haunches and clawed at its snout with large sharp talons. Yusuke threw himself to one side, then to the other, avoiding being cut in half by a very small margin.

Then Thallen threw his head back, Yusuke lost his grip, and he realized exactly how high up he was. He realized this because he was falling. Immediately he let the sword go, not wanting a redo of last time when he'd fallen on it.

As he fell, Yusuke thought many things, most of which involved cursing his luck very thoroughly, but there was also a fleeting regret that Yukina would have to patch him up again.

Presuming he lived.

And since this time there was no Kear to land in the chances he was going be opening his eyes on the real world in a minute were much better.

However Yusuke's luck had, it seemed, not completely deserted him. When he landed, he landed in the thorn thicket the dragon had been protecting. The branches held for a moment, slowing his fall, before they broke and dropped him sharply downward. Yusuke hit something soft that went "_Oof_!".

When he opened his eyes he was exceedingly surprised to find that he was not back in the real world, but instead was staring up into broken thorn branches and a sky beyond that.

"Oi! Gettoff!" said what he was laying on.

Yusuke rolled off it, falling on his butt a little farther down than he'd expected. Looking up he saw he'd just fallen off a raised stone plinth and peering down at him was an extremely familiar face.

"Kuwabara?" he asked.

Kuwabara blinked, "Yeah?"

"Good." Yusuke socked him in the face.

Holding his eye, Kuwabara glared at him. "Jeeze, Urameshi, what the hell was that about?"

"If you were here the whole time, why didn't you come out of here and help with the damn dragon?!"

"What dragon?"

"The one out there, you moron! Thallen!"

"Oh," Kuwabara said. "Thallen, _him_ I remember. He made me go to sleep in the wacky place. I didn't know anything about a dragon though, he was just a guy with blond hair when I talked to him. Oh, in my defense, I was asleep until you fell on me, thanks to that guy."

"Oh," echoed Yusuke a little baffled. "okay then. At least your sane sounding. You should have heard the first Kurama I found, he sounded nuts."

"The first time you found him? I don't think I even want to know." Kuwabara slid to the side of the stone plinth, his legs dangling over the edge. "And it's a damn sad day when I sound more sane than Kurama."

"Yep. Definitely a sad day."

Above then there was a roar of dragon-ic rage that shook the thorns and both boys jumped.

"Wow, there really is a dragon out there," Kuwabara said in surprise.

Yusuke rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath about his doubts about Kuwabara's brainpower. "So what are we going to do with Thallen out there, and before you ask, yeah it is 'we', you can't go until we get rid of that big lizard out there."

"What's your plan?"

"Well…first of all we need to get out of here, all this stupid shrubbery is gonna be a pain to get through…wait a minute, where's that sword?"

"You've got a sword Urameshi? Since when have you been able to summon a Spirit Sword?"

"No, idiot not my sword, Kear gave it to me. He's this guide," Yusuke explained when Kuwabara looked at him vaguely. "he showed up to help me and gave me that, it's supposed to make it easier to kill Thallen, but I must have lost it when the dragon threw me off. Okay, here's a new plan. You run this way, I'll run that way. I can blast my way through with a Spirit Gun shot and you can have at it with you Spirit Sword."

Kuwabara looked pained. "Um, Urameshi… remember what happened in the final round Dark Tournament? About a month ago? My Spirit Sword is still MIA."

"Oh, yeah, sorry," he'd forgotten about that. "how about this, I fire two blasts, we run through the holes it'll make. When you get out there, look for that sword, it's one of those medieval looking things, not like Hiei's. Red pommel stone, pretty plain. It's supposed to be made specially to kill Thallen. Whichever of us gets it, we'll go for that dragon. End plan."

"Sounds good to me."

**--------------------------------------------**

The dragon had been unwilling to simply smash the thorn thicket down, he wanted those boys as servants, they would be extremely useful to be able to puppet. To do that however, their bodies would have to be in a fairly intact condition, which was why he letting them hide among the thorns for now.

The boy he had laid there to sleep would most likely have been woken by the Detective falling through, Thallen snorted in frustration, now he would have to keep track of both them.

Something glimmering red in the light caught his eye, it was the sword that the Detective had been wielding, it had stuck into the ground point first, and the light caught on the pommel stone. Carefully the dragon nosed the sword and saw…

_A bright woman, with wings carefully handed a long wrapped bundle to…to a disembodied pair of hands. "Now Master Kear, make sure that you give this to him as soon as possible, now that we've finished creating this sword. Try not to touch the blade itself to much, it could be bad for your avatar."_

_Now there was a pair of boots standing beneath the hands, gradually the end of a cloak assembled from thin air, beginning to build upward. "I'll remember it Aleara," said a voice from that general area above the hands. "this avatar isn't going to be a real work of art, we don't have enough time. But, I'll be see-through no matter what I try, that might make it hard to make him trust me." the cloak had reached up level with the hands, cloth covered arms assembled to connected them. It went upward making cloth covered shoulders and a neck. _

_"This is dangerous Master Kear," the woman, Aleara, said. "for you especially."_

_"I know," a round face assembled, a braid fell down his back, green blue eyes opened, furry ears twitched, and he sighed. "trust me, I know, I fully intend to be cowardly there. Now, I know you can hold time for a bit, but if you hold it any longer I'm going to miss Master Genkai's student's arrival altogether. Some guide I would be then." he chuckled, then slung the sword bundle over his shoulder and belted it._

_"Here, Master Kear," Aleara handed him a small silver pocket watch, which he stowed away in his cloak and then a lantern. "again, please be careful. Lord Koenma wants everyone back in one piece. Remember to use the lantern to come here whenever Thallen is near, it's safe here."_

_"Good, I'll keep it in mind and I'll do my best about the one piece part. Don't worry. See you Aleara," Kear saluted then opened the lantern door with a flourish, vanishing._

_Aleara bit her lip, looking worried. "Master Kear, may you have all the luck I can give to you."_

Blinded the dragon shook it's head trying to clear the brightness from its vision.

Two blasts of blue white energy hurtled out from opposite ends of the thorn thicket, thin branches flying everywhere and Yusuke and Kuwabara bolted out of the paths cleared by the Spirit Gun blasts.

"Urameshi! There!" Kuwabara shouted pointing at were the sword stuck out of the ground.

"Gotcha!" turning the direction he was running in Yusuke made a beeline for the blade, almost skirting the dragon's legs to do it.

Kuwabara yelled in surprise as Thallen slapped a huge paw down near him, scurrying away.

Feet from the sword Yusuke gave up running and dove toward it. On the fly he ripped it from the ground and tried to turn his fall into a roll that would keep the sword from chopping one of his limbs off. Somehow he managed it, coming to his feet in one fluid movement.

He didn't let the sword take control just yet, he wasn't close enough for it to matter.

"What… ah! Jeez!…what next Urameshi?" Kuwabara jumped out of the way of another dragon paw.

"I don't know!"

"_What_?"

Thallen chuckled so deep and low that Yusuke could feel his ribs rattle together. "Give up, Yusssuke Urrramessshi, againssst me you have no chance."

Making a break in his direction Kuwabara grabbed his arm. "Urameshi, tell me you've really got a plan after this."

"Try to find a way to get him to lower his head," muttered Yusuke as quietly as he could. "I want to get him through the eye."

Kuwabara nodded, then took off, waving his arms, yelling at the top of his lungs. "Hey you! Yeah, you in the scales! All that talk about Urameshi and your forgetting me! I'm still here and I'm not _about_ to do anything for you!"

"What you want, doesss not matterrr," rumbled Thallen.

"No way! You might as well eat me now, cause I'm not about to doing _anything_ for you, mindless or not!!"

The demon glared down at him from his greater height as if weighing him up. "You arrre not worrrth it the trrrouble it will be to contrrrol you, human. Yessssss," he hissed the last word extra. "Yesss, you arrre too ssstubborrrn forrr my liking. I will eliminate you herrre and now." Thallen lowered his head until his eye was level with Kuwabara and opened his gaping jaws to reveal frighteningly large teeth.

Kuwabara gulped visibly. "I really want my Spirit Sword right about now."

Just as the dragon went to swallow him whole, Yusuke came hurling out of nowhere. The blade he held glowed blue as he plunged it into Thallen's eye in a perfect flying leap that could have never managed without the sword's influence over him. Deeper and deeper it went, though the eye and into the brain as the dragon bellowed in pain, throwing his head up, then collapsing down into a heap.

There Thallen lay still and began to fade away. Two seconds later is was as if there had never been a dragon there, the sword lay of the grass, its razor edge catching the sun. It didn't have a speck of blood on it, unlike Yusuke's arm.

He was gore up to his elbow. "Uck," he proclaimed, inspecting his arm for a minute then ripping up grass to rub the gunk off with.

"Yeah…" said Kuwabara faintly, he'd fallen over and was just getting back to his feet. "is it always like that? I mean does he usually just… disappear like that?"

"Uh-huh, I take that as a good sign when he does. It means that bit is dead. Last time there were some issues with that. Kurama can tell you all about it on the other end."

"Just like Kurama, always getting his nose into trouble," snorted Kuwabara. "I'm going off, Urameshi, that okay?"

Yusuke waved at him. "Go, I suppose I'll be there soon to, hopefully."

"…hopefully…" repeated Kuwabara under his breath, skepticism clear on his face. "I hate it when you say that." his face relaxed, and he turned his face up becoming more see-through by the moment.

When he was gone, Yusuke heaved a huge sigh. "So now what?"

**--------------------------------------------**

He decided his first order of choice would be to find the lantern. There was no way to tell were it had flown when the dragon had hit it. The grass had swallowed it up so thoroughly Yusuke was despairing of ever finding it again.

Before he had always returned to the path, but when he found it, Yusuke realized that the path dead-ended right in front of the thicket Kuwabara had been in. No more easy leads then.

It felt like he searched for hours, though time was rather negotiable in…wherever it was.

So now that all his team was freed, what now? Wasn't it his time to get back? Or was there something he had left to do? Technically there was a piece of Thallen still out there, but it wasn't actually trying to kill one of them, so did it really matter?

Now Yusuke was getting seriously worried about that little guide, he should have popped up a long time ago, if just to irritate him. "…Kear?" he called out cautiously. "You out there, little guy?" not a cricket cheeped. That was the strange thing about this weird world, no bugs, no birds, nothing that Thallen hadn't put in on purpose. There was one way to put it and it was: "_Creepy_." Which was exactly what he said, with great vehemence.

"Creepy?" echoed someone, predictably, because it was an old cliché, from behind him.

Yusuke wasted no time whipping around to face the speaker, fully expecting to face a grinning guide, but when he was facing the person and registered the voice he realized he was wrong. The voice was all wrong for Kear, but it was all right for Thallen.

The very last piece of the demon Thallen stood there, a little girl in a bright red cloak. A little girl with blue eyes and small horn at the corners of her…his forehead. "Creepy you say?" the girl cocked her head, but the voice, as with the fake Yukina, was the same Thallen. The form twisted, becoming the one he was used to, the blond man. "I'm quite insulted, I expended a lot of energy to make this trap for your team, though I can't tell you how disappointed I was initially that you didn't fall into it. But then, lo and behold, you appeared, wandering into it all by yourself."

"I didn't have a choice, you were trying to kill my team. Not that I knew it at the time, stupid memory loss."

Thallen's eyes narrowed. "But you realize that you've ruined everything now, even if I return to my real body, I will be only one piece out of five. You killed the rest." And Yusuke realized that if you returned that little to a body, it wouldn't be sane anymore.

"I see you understand my circumstances, Yusuke Urameshi. Now you understand I have nothing left to lose." Then he held up something that made Yusuke's blood run cold.

He held up the lantern.

"This is really an interesting object, I must admit. When I found it in the grass, I was most surprised. Originally I had planned to keep your guide, as he's so powerful, but now…" he raised a blond eyebrow. "now, I think, I'll do something… else." dangling the lantern tantalizingly in the air, Thallen flipped it's little door open. He reached into it, his entire arm disappearing, and grabbed something. Slowly he pulled it out.

Thallen pulled Kear's form from the lantern, his hand buried in the guide's hair. Then he pulled his shoulders out, until Kear was dangling grotesquely between the lantern and the demon, his features twisted in pain, tears of pain in his eyes. His bottom half below the shoulders thinned out, funneling back into the lantern.

"What the…?" Yusuke started, reaching for the sword.

"…Yusuke…" whispered Kear, the tears beginning to leak down his face, he appeared to be in a lot of pain. "…Yusuke." He reached for him with his remaining hand, Thallen yanked hard on his hair, literally ripping him from the lantern and he screamed. "_Yusuke_!"

He'd called him by _name_. The only other time he'd done that had been when Yusuke had fallen off the tower. When all went wrong.

"_Chicken," Yusuke commented, blandly._

_"I have every reason to be, sir!" Kear's eyes grew cold and from blue to green. "Thallen just needs to touch me to get the link into my mind he needs. Then he can wipe my mind as clean as a slate, and do what he wants with my body. I would be his personal puppet." _

_"Huh, I would be chicken too."_

"Exactly, sir."

Tossing the lantern away, Thallen lifted Kear so he could look him in the face. "So frightened of me? Why, your lucky, I was going to keep you before," he then let him lower, the guide's feet touched the grass, but he appeared to be too terrified to move. "instead of doing _this_." Thallen changed his grip so that his hand was around Kear's neck, putting the other hand on his head he twisted…

"_NO_!" Yusuke yelled pulling the sword out.

…twisted sharply to the side. The was an ugly cracking noise, Thallen let him go and Kear slumped forward, falling face first down onto the ground.

"Instead I'll kill you," said Thallen, with a smile that was more than a sneer than anything else.

In the grass the small form didn't move. In fact, it looked like it wouldn't ever move again.

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	7. Wherein There Are Wrapups

**Tales Of Rescuing**

Dane Soar

The final chapter, the last act, as it were, and it's come pretty quickly. The only person to go back is Yusuke, then it'll all be over. Thanks for reading and please give me a review, tell me, what did you like, what didn't you like, that sort of thing. It really helps.

And if you like this, take a look at some of the other things I've written (nod nod, wink wink, come on, you know you want to). Thanks again and on to the story.

**---------------------------**

Chapter 6 **Wherein There Are Final Wrap-ups And Yusuke Asks "What Now?" (Which Means He Also Says Hellos And Goodbyes)**

**---------------------------**

_(Tale Ends)_

Kear wasn't moving, wasn't getting up, he was just…laying there.

"No…" Yusuke said faintly. "…no, no he's not dead…he's faking, just like that time with the bandits…you went right through him like…like I usually do when I touch him…"

"Really? Faking? You think so?" touching the toe of his boot to Kear's side Thallen rolled him over. "Seems like a convincing act to me."

And it did, Kear lay absolutely limp, his eyes closed. He didn't move when Thallen kicked him, not so much as a twitch.

A moment later, Kear's form wavered, and he became even more see through. Then he was gone.

"You killed him." Yusuke stated flatly, hefting his sword.

With a laugh Thallen spread his hands. "At last Yusuke Urameshi, it sinks in." he reached to his side and drew from its sheath a sword that's blade was black as night. "Yes, I killed him."

These were the moments that Yusuke realized that he had an incredible streak of loyalty; it was a thing that had been manipulated so thoroughly up to this point he probably should have been more aware of the fact. This was what Genkai and Toguro had drawn on in the Dark Tournament, using Kuwabara. And Suzaku with Botan and Kayko in that Maze Castle case. And Hiei with Kayko during the Three Treasures incident. Even Kurama had used it at one point.

Every time.

When people around Yusuke were hurt, even ones he didn't know very well, even ones he'd really only just met, it made him furious. That fury drove him to more power, drove his potential to its limits.

He'd not been overly fond of Kear, that guy was an annoying little bastard, but really, so was Hiei in the end. However Kear didn't deserve to just be killed like that. To just be killed by a madman's whim and tossed aside like a toy that a kid doesn't want anymore, nobody deserved that, no matter now irritating they had been.

And Thallen had just snapped his neck like that to make him angry.

It had worked, but not like Thallen would have wanted it to. The anger funneled down into a cold place and he _seethed_ with it. A cold hard anger, that made his eyes glow white at the bottoms and his sword glimmer not blue, but white.

"You just made a big mistake," he said slowly, the grass around him flattened with the shear pressure of his power and farther away it fluttered as if it was caught in a high wind. "You've made me angry." He let control of his body go to the sword, he was going to rip Thallen apart, not only for what he had done, but for all the things he'd tried to do, especially to his team.

And Yusuke charged.

With no idea what he had just let loose, Thallen smiled and raised his black blade.

When they clashed, sparks flew far and wide; some hit the ground, singeing the grass. Again and again they crossed blades, seeking any hole in the other's guard. Circling cautiously, Thallen and Yusuke eyed each other, feinting and testing each other.

Once more they collided under the too warm sun, which made the sweat pour down Yusuke's back and, stinging, into his eyes. With a shake of his head he tried to clear his vision, but had to quickly concentrate as Thallen came back at him. He didn't want to take a hand off his sword to wipe his eyes, his newfound battle instincts told him this would be a bad idea.

So far the sword's influence had served him well, thus far, and he no had reason to doubt it now. It turned him into a master swordsman, which was a great thing, as Thallen really _was_ one.

Their feet had flattened a wide circle in the grass by now, with scorch marks from the sparks.

"Tired?" asked Thallen, with a mocking grin.

"No." snapped Yusuke even though his arms were shaking from the sword's weight. At the edges of the blade the blue was coming back over the white, he could feel his hold starting to waver.

Then Thallen struck forward with a hard blow that knocked him back a full five steps and his sword snapped off a few inches from the hilt. Backing off, he stared at the useless end. It shone no longer, it was just a dull bit of medal attached to a hilt.

All at once it didn't matter, he didn't care anymore. The sword was broken, but it didn't _matter_. This place wasn't _real_, the rules that applied to the real world didn't matter here, perhaps he wasn't doomed yet.

Stepping back some he summoned every scrap of his power he could get at, raising the sword so that it was ready, even if it was broken. His eyes glowed brighter, the sword began to do so once more. The light didn't stop at the shorn end of the blade, moving down as if it was full length. He was holding a shining sword of white light that began to drip blue flames, the same shade of the flames in his oven at the apartment.

It was now or never. Time for an all of nothing strike, time to commit to something all the way, like Genkai was always hitting him over the head to have him do.

This was it.

"You know what?" he asked Thallen.

The demon had the audacity to shrug as if he didn't. "Yes, Detective?"

"I'm going to kill you now. And there's not a thing you can do to stop it."

Laughing the demon raised his own black blade. "Just try it."

And he did, lowering his sword and propelling himself toward the demon, he wanted nothing more in the world than to kill. Catching Thallen's on blade his he leaned hard on it, his flaming sword burning holes in Thallen's shirt. With a crack all out of proportion the black sword cracked clean through. Yusuke's blow kept going. Even if he wanted to stop it, he couldn't have.

Shining brightly, his sword swung directly at Thallen and his new sword given instincts made him swing it sharply to the side. It's razor edge sliced clean through.

The head landed a little farther away, but the body fell slowly.

Backing away, Yusuke panted, leaning on the sword after sticking it into the ground. "…see?" he wheezed. "Told…you…I'd…do…it…" Yusuke sat down hard. "…and…and there's…nothing you…can do…to stop it…yep…nothin'…" leaning back he flopped into the grass, until he had caught his breath.

"…not possible!" said Thallen's voice and when Yusuke looked sideways, through the stems of grass he could see the head, strangely talking on it's own. "No, not possible. Not possible!"

Yusuke snorted. "Fuckin' yeah, it is, die already, would you?"

With a final croak of "Not possible!" Thallen's head, along with his body, faded away.

"Finally," muttered Yusuke. "been looking forward to that." He sat up and yanked the still glowing, but not flaming, sword out of the ground, sticking it back in closer and using it to pull himself the rest of the way up.  
He almost fell back down again when it stopped glowing and, with a sound of nails falling through tinfoil, dissolved into tiny glittering pieces of metal, which blew away.

"Okay then," he said. "guess it really is over." And all the sudden, an strange feeling crept over him. Yusuke felt light, lighter than he had ever felt in this strange place. He looked up to the sky, the bright blue, clear sky, and spread his arms wide.

"Definitely time to go."

The sky faded away and the scenery doubled in his sight. Closing his eyes, Yusuke felt himself fade away.

**--------------------------------------------**

_From very far away he heard someone calling his name, over and over. _

_It sounded a bit like Kear._

_Very… very, far away…_

_…he drifted out again…_

**--------------------------------------------**

_Poke, poke._

There was something jabbing into his ribs. Yusuke tried to ignore it. Laying around seemed like a really nice option right now.

_Poke, poke._

Yeah, this was the life. No reason at all to open his-

_Poke, poke._

"Shit." Yusuke opened his eyes and they met the sunlight head on. "…arg…Jeeze."

_Poke, poke._

He whipped his hand out to strike the annoying poke-er, and someone caught his fingers giving them a hard twist.

"Arg!" he yelled and sat up.

Genkai glared at him, dropping his fingers. "About time you woke up, idiot, it was touch and go for a bit there."

Yusuke sat up with a groan and he slung an arm over his eyes to cover them from the light gushing in through the open door of the temple. "'m back?" he asked.

As an answer Genkai rapped him over the head then strode off to the door, opening it and going into the hallway. "Of course, Dimwit, where else would this be? Get up, it's been two days since you walked into Thallen's trap. We had a hell of a time getting you out of there when that place collapsed, it took forever."

"_What_?" Yusuke scrabbled out of the covers so quickly they almost tripped him. He was lucky it was just a pallet on the floor, not a raised bed. "Two days? It took me that long to wake up?"

From the hall Genkai's voice drifted back to him. "Yes, you took so long that you went past the safe time threshold. Kear figured you could take it though, so we left you in until you finished."

"Oh…" he felt a bit of a pang.

Kear was dead.

What about the others? He broke into a shambling, stumbling run, uncoordinated from what, according to his body, had been two days of laying around.

Reaching the first door in the hallway he tore it open. Botan looked up from the book she'd been reading.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"Good." Yusuke said.

The next door he slid open led to Kurama, who had his arm out, about to open the door from his side.

"You fine?" Yusuke asked.

"Naturally." he said, calmly.

"Good." he took off for the next door, leaving Kurama peering, confused, after him.

When the door after that slid open, Hiei glared at him from across the room.

"You still living?"

"Obviously," growled Hiei. "shut the door on your way out."

"Shuddup."

In the next room Kuwabara lay on a pallet, staring at the ceiling.

"You alright?" he asked him.

Mutely Kuwabara lifted a thumbs-up sign into the air.

"Good," he shut the door and at once the effects of having not slept (or not _technically_ slept) in two days caught up with him. In fact, his bones felt like they'd been dipped in cement and left to dry, his eyes started to droop. "good," he repeated. "if you guys are all okay, I'm going back to bed."

And saying that, he trudged back to his nice soft pallet on the floor, feeling like he wanted to sleep for another two days.

**--------------------------------------------**

The place had no scenery, or rather, it was all obstructed with gray swirly mist, which was strange, but today of all days, Yusuke was ready to go along with strangeness.

There was a small person sitting on a ledge over looking the great ocean of mist, dangling his legs over the edge, kicking his heels, making little puffs of mist rise up.

He sat by him, looking at the face. It was not as round as he was used to, but the features were the same, especially the green blue eyes, the hair wasn't in a braid, but pulled back in a ponytail, and the cloak wasn't a dark gray, it was a deep blue, however Yusuke knew the young man next to him.

"Hey," he said to him. "I thought you were dead."

Kear laughed, it echoed strangely in the mist. "Dead? I'm touched Yusuke, for your concern, but I'm far from dead, it would take a lot more than that."

"But you disappeared! Vanished! I mean, Thallen snapped your neck, just like that." He mimed it with his hands, making a face.

Kear winced remembering. "Of course I disappeared, he'd completely ruined my avatar! I couldn't hold it there anymore. But, look," Kear held up both hands then shook back his cloak. "I had enough time to make this one really nice, see, I even have _elbows_ now."

Yusuke frowned. "You really had me worried back there, you know? But I guess I wasn't exactly thinking straight at the time. What is this place anyway?" he looked around into the mist.

"This is were I went when I went through the lantern, Aleara made it so I'd have a safe haven to run off to. Oh…um… by the way, sorry about your sword breaking, without me there to keep up the correct energy flow, it got pretty weak. But I see you managed okay without it."

"Yeah, I did. Guess I used my own energy instead of yours, I can pull off some pretty cool shit when I don't have a clue what I'm doing."

"I can imagine, Yusuke." said Kear dryly.

"So was it you that was controlling me when I let the sword take me over? Where did that thing come from anyway?"

"Well as to your first question, it wasn't me, it really was that sword, it's the way it was made, it opens up the right paths in your brain, that kind of thing. And I think I mentioned something about how it was made to you after that tower incident."

He rolled his eyes. "Refresh me."

"Well Aleara and I created it. She was able to hold time long enough for her to get me ready. That was when we made the sword, she made this place, and I made my avatar. Sadly," he shrugged and flicked his long tail of hair back over his shoulder. "it was all done in something of a hurry."

"It all worked out in the end though, right?"

"You have no idea how close it really was! We were well over the safe time limit I told you about around the time you rescued Kurama from the huntsman version of Thallen."

"Wait then…hey! You lied to me!"

"Of course I did, Yusuke, really you didn't need to know, it wouldn't have done anyone any good."

"Wait a minute," Yusuke blinked at him. "I just realized something. Your calling me by name."

Kear shrugged. "Yes, well, I remembered how much you hated being called 'sir', now that we're not on that mission, there's no reason to keep doing it."

"I knew you were just out to annoy me." he sighed. "Okay, let me make sure I've got this whole thing straight, my memories are something of a mess. Koenma sent us, me and my team I mean, after Thallen, but Thallen was ready, he blasted everybody's minds. But Aleara, that glowing chick with the wings, showed up because Koenma sent her, and she shielded me.

She sent me off to go rescue the others, then went and got you. Then you two did all that preparation, then you came here, 'cause I didn't remember at first why I was there. But it came back to me as I went along."

"I had a feeling that would happen,"

"I bet you did. So I went along and rescued my team, then when the final battle came around Thallen took you out of the picture. Because of that, the sword broke."

"But as you said, it all turned out in the end," Kear raised a foot from the mist and inspected his toes. "I didn't make boots on this avatar, this mist feels really nice."

"So, ah, what are you going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

Yusuke sighed. "I mean, what are you going to do now, are you still going to be asleep like you told me you were in the real world?"

It was Kear's turn to sigh. "Yes, I'm not going to wake up. Maybe I'll find some other interesting mission to help on, who knows? Besides the danger and the occasional bit of pain, this one wasn't so bad."

"And that thing you said, about Thallen being able to snap your mind, was that true?"

"Oh, yes, it was, I thought it was probably best to be very cowardly and hide whenever there was a hint of Thallen nearby. I like my skin in one piece."

"Huh,"

Kear rose to his feet, brushing his cloak off. He reached down into the mist and drew up a lantern. With a puff of breath he lit it. "Gotta go then,"

"Will I see you again?"

He shrugged. "Probably not."

Yusuke nodded, he accepted that. "Bye then."

"Goodbye, Yusuke, it's been… interesting to say the least." With a nod back to him, Kear swung his lantern up and by it's light, he marched away from the cliff, into the mist.

Then Yusuke realized something. "Hey, Kear!"

"What?" came his voice from the mist.

"How do I get out of here?"

A laugh echoed back to him. "Just close your eyes." The little dot of light from Kear's lantern, all that Yusuke could see of him, disappeared.

"'Close your eyes' he says. Like that'll work." Yusuke rolled his eyes, then closed them.

**--------------------------------------------**

"Oh, Yusuke! Your awake."

The voice sound familiar and when he opened his eyes, he knew why. Kayko kneeled by his pallet. "Arg," he said. "Kayko, how'd you get here?"

She frowned at him, distant thunderclouds in her face, hinting at lurking trouble. "Yusuke, you've been missing from school for four days now and asleep for these last two. I called Genkai on the second day. Where you on a mission? I thought I told you, you had to tell me when you did that." she was not frowning at him anymore, now she was glaring at him, but there were hints of tears in her eyes. "I was so worried you weren't going to wake up!"

He gulped. He hated it when Kayko made that face at him. "Look, Kayko, I can explain everything, really, I promise!" for a second, Yusuke thought he heard a laugh from far far away.

And for a while he'd live happily ever after… at least until the next mission.

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**The End**


End file.
